31st Street Is Closed at Water Street Until Spring. The Fontanero Roundabout Comes Right After.

On the Friday morning of Labor Day weekend, Jan Kirk drove from the four-way stop at Fontanero and 31st Street toward Colorado Avenue. She told KKTV the drive took 16 to 17 minutes. According to that same report, mapping apps usually put that stretch at one to three minutes.

That gap shows what 31st Street really is. Camp Creek runs down its median, and it is the main road in and out of Pleasant Valley. KKTV also calls it a popular cut-through to Garden of the Gods to the north, Old Colorado City to the south, and Manitou Springs. Bike Colorado Springs calls it a key low-stress bike route linking riders in Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs to the Foothills Trail and Garden of the Gods. So one creek-lined street carries neighbors, visitors and cyclists.

For the next year or so, the city is rebuilding that street in two back-to-back projects. The first one started Oct. 19.

What closed, and why it stays closed on weekends

On Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, the city closed Water Street at the Camp Creek bridge and North 31st Street at Water Street. The closure runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the city is targeting April 2027 for completion. It stays in place on nights and weekends when crews aren't working. Crews are scheduled Monday through Friday, with some Saturday work. Local access to homes on both sides is maintained, but you can't drive through the work zone.

KRDO reported that the bridge being replaced is 71 years old. The intersection closed late Monday morning, and some neighbors and drivers were frustrated to find it shut before any work was visible. The city says the bridge is structurally deficient and has outlived its expected service life. The city also describes it as an important connection for Pleasant Valley residents, Howbert Elementary School and emergency services "in a neighborhood with limited access routes."

That phrase about limited access routes explains the detours. With the shortcut closed, traffic has to use the neighborhood's smaller streets instead.

The city posted a vehicle and pedestrian detour map along with its Oct. 16 closure notice. Residents should expect noise, dust, heavy equipment and truck traffic. The project team asks people to get in touch about driveway access, deliveries or other needs specific to their property so the field crew can plan around them.

On foot, the new bridge is doing the work

The closure leans on a piece of infrastructure that has only been in place since summer. Crews finished a new pedestrian bridge in front of Howbert Elementary in July 2026. KRDO reported that it replaces an older bridge that was removed after a vehicle crash damaged it in 2024.

The corner crosswalks at Water and 31st are closed for now. To cross Water Street, use the temporary crossings on the west and east sides of North 31st. To get from one side of 31st to the other, walk south on the sidewalk to the pedestrian bridge and street crossing by Howbert, then head back north on the other side. Posted signs mark the route.

The school is half a block south of the intersection, which is why the closure changes its daily routine. Howbert teacher Becki Dickey told KRDO the school's parking lot would serve as the route for drop-off and pick-up. "We're going to make it work, but it doesn't feel like it'll be the safest for kids," she said. The school was on fall break the week the closure began, so the week of Oct. 26 is the first full week of school traffic under the new layout. The city says it will coordinate access details with the school and District 11, and district staff will confirm any bus changes.

On a bike, the Foothills Trail link is the open question

Bike Colorado Springs posted an October update saying the bridge work affects bike access from 31st Street to the Foothills Trail by way of Garden of the Gods Road. The group added the closures and detours to BikeStreets and to its own interactive closure map. Its own detour map follows Westmoor Drive.

The group was also still asking two things in its October update: whether riders would keep a continuous connection to the Foothills Trail during construction, and what low-stress detours would be available while the bridge and later the roundabout are closed. Until those answers come, the signed detour is the route, and the city asks people walking and biking to stay out of the construction area.

Then Fontanero gets its roundabout

The bridge is the first project. The bigger change to how traffic moves comes after it. The city plans to replace the four-way stop at Fontanero and 31st with a roundabout, replace the bridge there, improve the Camp Creek channel, and add better pedestrian facilities. The intersection that held up Kirk on Labor Day weekend is the one being rebuilt.

Here is the 31st Street schedule as it stands:

1. July 2026: Pedestrian bridge by Howbert Elementary completed.
2. Oct. 19, 2026: Water Street bridge closures begin.
3. Winter 2026–2027: Bridge, utility, roadway and pedestrian work.
4. April 2027: Target for Water Street completion, which the city will confirm as work goes on. Final paving happens as weather allows.
5. Spring 2027 to fall 2027: Fontanero roundabout construction. KKTV reported an April 2027 start.

If those dates hold, the roundabout work starts right around when the Water Street bridge reopens. That puts most of 2027 under construction too.

The two projects are paid for differently. The Water Street bridge is estimated at about $5 million. About $1.3 million comes from a Colorado Department of Transportation grant, and the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority covers the rest. For the roundabout, PPRTA's September 2026 board packet lists a construction-services contract with HEI for $4,667,774.71. Of that, $806,976.74 is PPRTA money and $3,860,797.97 is grant funding. In other words, grants pay for most of the roundabout.

City capital improvements manager Ryan Phipps told KKTV that "roundabouts, in general, reduce the number and the severity of collisions." According to the city's fact sheet, the design includes "widened shared-use facilities through the intersection," and cyclists can either ride through the roundabout with traffic or use the wider pedestrian paths.

Neighbors' worries about the roundabout center on pedestrians. Attendees at the Sept. 15 open house at Holmes Middle School told KKTV they were concerned that drivers moving through a roundabout might not look for people crossing the way they do when they stop at a four-way stop. Many of those pedestrians are children and parents heading to Howbert. Some attendees also raised questions about getting in and out of their driveways. City officials said they plan to work closely with the school and make safety changes as needed. The city's tally shows 72 attendees and 14 written comments at that open house.

The Pleasant Valley Neighborhood Association wants more say in the design. Association member Chuck Whalen told KRDO the group has questions about how the city is building on plans that were already finished. He said the association plans to meet with city planners in November, and that its own earlier design widened the creek channel to make room for bike lanes. Bike Colorado Springs points out that a 2018 concept put a multi-use path down the middle of 31st along Camp Creek. That idea was tied to a larger channel project, and the group says it is unclear whether any of it is part of the roundabout.

Kirk's view of the roundabout was simple. "Thank you, Colorado Springs, for doing this," she told KKTV. "It's improving the neighborhood."

How to keep up through spring

The bridge and the roundabout share one webpage, one email address and one phone number, and each update says which project it covers.

• Email: [email protected], to ask questions or join the update list. The team promises a first reply within two business days.
• Phone: 719-679-4880.
• Newsletters: Water Street construction updates go out every two weeks, with extra notices for residents as needed.
• Webpage: The 31st Street Improvement Projects page posts current closures, detours and any change to the April 2027 date.
• Water service: Colorado Springs Utilities will notify affected customers directly before any planned interruption. A utility work date alone doesn't mean your service will be shut off.
• Cyclists: Bike Colorado Springs asks riders to copy [email protected] on emails to the project team so the group can pass shared concerns along.

At Brent Patterson, we pay close attention to how projects like this change everyday life on the west side, from a new school drop-off route to a shortcut that won't be back until spring. If you're thinking about a move near 31st Street and want to know how the detours and the 2027 roundabout affect a particular block, give us a call and we'll go through it with you.