The West Side's Winter Detours Depend on the Pipe Work Underneath

The city scheduled the Water Street bridge over Camp Creek at North 31st Street to close on Monday, Oct. 19. Bike Colorado Springs lists April 2027 as the expected finish. A week earlier and a few miles southeast, northbound 8th Street reopened between Motor City Drive and Lower Gold Camp Road after its own long stall. Then the work zone moved one block north.

Both schedules have long stretches of water line work under the street. On 8th Street, that work kept a single block closed for more than four months. At Water Street, the city has set aside November through February for waterline relocation, between taking out the old bridge and building the new one. If you want to know when your route will reopen, watch how that utility work goes.

Water Street: about six months of closure, with one month of bridge building

The City of Colorado Springs' 31st Street project page says the Water Street bridge was built in 1955, has structural deficiencies, and has outlived its expected service life. The project is estimated at about $4.4 million. A $1.3 million grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation covers part of it, and the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority and Colorado Springs Utilities pay the rest. Wildcat Construction is the contractor, and HR Green is managing construction.

The city's schedule shows where the months go:

• Mid-October 2026: staging, erosion control, the road closure, site prep, and removal of the old bridge
• Nov. 1, 2026, through Feb. 28, 2027: Colorado Springs Utilities moves the waterline
• March 2027: the new bridge goes in, the roadway is rebuilt, and new curb ramps, sidewalks, and crosswalks are installed
• Spring 2027: target completion, though final paving could wait until school is out in summer 2027 if weather doesn't cooperate

That puts four months of utility work at the center of a six-month closure. The city also says the waterline replacement won't interrupt anyone's water service.

The closure covers Water Street and North 31st Street at the bridge. The city has asked drivers to follow the posted detour and stay off neighborhood streets. The FAQ also says Pleasant Valley has limited access routes, so the traffic plan was written with local access and emergency response in mind. Howbert Elementary sits right next to the work. The city says it is coordinating arrival and dismissal, bus access, family drop-off and pickup, walking and biking routes, and emergency access with Colorado Springs School District 11.

The bike route takes the bigger hit

Bike Colorado Springs calls 31st Street "a vital low-stress bicycle route connecting riders in Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs residents to the Foothills Trail and Garden of the Gods." Its October update says the bridge work will affect 31st Street bike access to the Foothills Trail by way of Garden of the Gods Road. People walking and biking will lose the Water Street crossing too, and the city plans a temporary detour for them. The same Bike Colorado Springs update posts the city's official detour map, a separate bike detour map, and an interactive closure map, and the detours have been added to BikeStreets.

One crossing is already done. In July 2026 the city finished a six-foot-wide, ADA-accessible pedestrian bridge over the Camp Creek drainage near Howbert Elementary, with ramps on both sides of 31st Street.

8th Street shows how underground work stretches a timeline

On the 8th Street project, the underground work came first and took longer than planned. According to KRDO's Oct. 12 report, the northbound block had been stuck in front of Walmart for more than four months. Crews bored 30 feet under Bear Creek for the first phase of a new water main, and that bore had to be redesigned. Colorado Springs Utilities then had to connect local businesses' service lines to the new main, and the city had to finish stormwater upgrades meant to handle flash flooding off the hills above 8th Street.

The city's Oct. 9 traffic notice says the reopened block between Motor City Drive and Abbot Lane now has a new 24-inch water main and new drainage. Crews will come back later this year for the final asphalt layer and permanent lane markings.

The next phase started Oct. 12. On South 8th Street between Lower Gold Camp Road and Costilla Street, traffic shifted to the east side of the road with one lane open each way. The city expects that pattern to last about four weeks, with crews working Saturdays. As of Thursday, Oct. 22, about two and a half weeks remain if the estimate holds. KRDO reported that this phase runs in front of the Shell station and the former Sonic. The water main is on the far side of the street there, so the new traffic pattern hits nearby businesses hard, including KRDO 13. Moreno Avenue is also closed at 8th Street.

The north end has its own problem. Repairs on the west side of the Fountain Creek bridge sometimes close the southbound left lane. KRDO reported that this can back up traffic at the north end of 8th Street, on the westbound US 24 Frontage Road, and in the Colorado Place shopping center parking lot.

The city says access to local businesses stays open and marked throughout the work zone. In August, KOAA talked with Brett Finkelstein, owner of Impact Sports Cards. He called the construction a "normal part of our business" and said he had worked with the city and his landlord to keep his entrances open. That KOAA report is from August 11.

The two closures side by side

8th Street shows that underground work can push a schedule back by months. The Water Street plan puts the waterline relocation squarely in the middle of its closure. Read the Water Street finish date as an estimate that depends on how the November-to-February utility work goes.

What the finished streets will look like

Once the work is done, both routes get better for people on foot and on bikes. A July 2026 project summary from Bike Colorado Springs describes the planned 8th Street layout as two lanes each direction, a center turn lane, striped and buffered bike lanes, and a 10-foot shared-use connection at the Fountain Creek bridge. The city's 8th Street project page also lists a northbound bridge lane with an attached sidewalk and trail, new sidewalk and curb from Fountain Creek to Lower Gold Camp Road, and traffic signals at Lower Gold Camp Road and Moreno Avenue.

The Water Street project adds new curb ramps, sidewalks, and crosswalks during its March 2027 phase. The next 31st Street project follows right after it. The city plans to replace the four-way stop at Fontanero Street with a roundabout, along with a new bridge and channel work on Camp Creek. Construction is expected to start in spring 2027 and finish in fall 2027. Ryan Phipps, the city's Capital Improvements Program Manager, told The Gazette that the current intersection "can back up; it can be awkward to navigate." The roundabout will be built in phases with temporary lane closures and detours, and the city says access to nearby homes will be maintained. Shared-use paths will be widened, cyclists can ride through the roundabout or use those paths, and some on-street parking will be removed or changed.

That means 31st Street could be under construction from this October through fall 2027. Water Street goes first, and its last phase, the March bridge placement, starts about when the Fontanero work is scheduled to begin.

At Innovative Moves, Aidan Peña keeps track of how projects like these change routes, access, and the timing of a move on the west side. If a closure on 31st Street or 8th Street affects a home you're thinking about selling or buying, let's connect and work the construction dates into your plan.