COLORADO SPRINGS — Community feedback is reshaping a year-long redesign of West Colorado Avenue in Colorado Springs, where city planners have removed cement barriers and scaled back center pedestrian refuge areas at crosswalks.
The project includes lane realignment, parking adjustments, and new pedestrian options. Protected crosswalks were added last month, and they have since been altered based on public input.
"Recently we made some adjustments to what we had initially implemented, and this is just that ongoing iterative process of testing what's working, what's not working as well as was originally anticipated," Ryan Phipps, Colorado Springs capital improvements manager, said.
The cement barriers that were part of the original crosswalk design are now gone.
"Basically what we heard was that concrete barrier, although it was just temporary, was obscuring some of the visibility for pedestrians, you know, especially shorter pedestrians because it's just a solid wall of concrete," Phipps said.
Center pedestrian refuge areas have also been scaled back, a change driven by feedback from first responders.
"There were times when vehicles were trying to pull out. The way for first responders to come through and they were kind of creating a blockade where the pedestrian refuge was. So we've removed that to ensure that fire and police have the access that they need up and down Colorado Avenue," Phipps said.
Planners say the changes are not necessarily correcting mistakes, but rather finding better options.
"It's all just kind of tweaking and balancing. That's why this test phase is so important is to really feel and see how this works," Phipps said.
Businesses along the corridor are watching the changes closely. Centennial Cuts sells prime Colorado beef and depends on customer access.
"All of our cattle are raised on our ranch in Fowler, Colorado, 3rd generation. We sell it here at our single brick and mortar store," Joe Kliche, the manager of Centennial Cuts, said.
The store's Colorado-created products are popular among locals and tourists, so its managers are paying attention to the changes to roads, parking, and walkways along Colorado Avenue.
"I do like how there is a center lane for parking for loading and unloading that's very helpful," Kliche said.
Store managers thought there would be more additional parking, and reactions to the crosswalk changes are mixed.
"It was a little weird in the middle of the street with all of the, like the stanchions or whatever coming up," Kliche said.
The latest updates represent a reset of this portion of the trial. City planners are now looking for more feedback to see if the changes are working.
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