 During the Fillmore Street water-repair project last weekend, Mike Myers (front) and Ray Williams (behind him) of Colorado Springs Utilities help guide trackhoe operator Scott Bowder (not shown) as he lowers a trench box - used for work safety - into the ditch where new pipe was being installed. The work was in the eastbound lanes of Fillmore Street, just west of Straus Lane. A later part of the project dug a perpendicular trench across the street to a main on Fillmore Ridge Heights. Looking down the hill, it can be seen how Fillmore was closed (except for business access between Straus and Chestnut Street). Westside Pioneer photo
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Fillmore Street, which had been closed for the project starting March 11 at 7 p.m., was reopened at 5 p.m. Sunday. The repair was actually done by 10 a.m. Sunday, but asphalt still needed to be poured over the trenched-and-refilled areas and have time to cool, according to Kristin Flannery, issues manager for Colorado Springs Utilities.
“There were no hitches and the weather was very good,” she said, when asked about the speedy completion.
Crews working in shifts kept the project going non-stop (including Friday and Saturday nights).
The project, which installed a new “T” connection from the main under Fillmore, required a 58-foot-long trench to be cut along the eastbound lanes and another 94 feet across the street to Fillmore Ridge Heights, a business cul-de-sac that intersects the four-lane arterial from the north.
Fillmore had to be shut down for the project because of the extent of the cut and the safety of the Utilities crews, Flannery said.
Upcoming on Westside
Two Colorado Springs Utilities projects are scheduled in the Holland Park area starting Monday, March 21.
The shorter of the two projects will be a 500-foot sanitary sewer line relocation on Vondelpark Drive.
Pate Construction, the contractor for Utilities, “should be out of your way” by Friday, March 25, according to a letter from the city enterprise to residents in that area. The letter adds that “the impact to most residents will be minimal, but there will be some areas within the project that may cause some temporary inconveniences.”
The work is actually the first phase of a project which will realign the wastewater line so that it no longer crosses Douglas Creek. The second phase (east of Holland Park Boulevard through the Douglas Creek Open Space) should start in early April, according to Kristin Flannery, issues manager for Colorado Springs Utilities, with phase 3 west of Holland Park Boulevard occurring later in the spring.
 Looking west from the Fillmore Street bridge over I-25 Saturday morning, March 12, the project area can be seen part way up the hill, with the street closed to through traffic. Westside Pioneer photo
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 A backhoe (foreground) and trackhoe operate side-by-side on the trench that was dug below Fillmore for the new water line and "T" connection. Westside Pioneer photo
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The other Utilities project starting March 21 will be a water-main replacement on Centennial Boulevard between Valkenburg Drive and Rialto Heights. The project is scheduled to end about April 21, depending on the weather, a letter to residents states.
Traffic on Centennial will be restricted by the work, which will involve replacing an “aging iron water main with durable PVC pipe,” the letter adds.
The letter also advises area residents to be ready for “daily water service interruptions” and cloudy water at times and provides phone numbers for Utilities employees who can answer specific types of questions.
Westside Pioneer article