A Side Streets reader, Jordan Strub, asked me if I’d ever noticed the Fillmore Street bridge.

Specifically, he was curious about the underside of the bridge that carries Fillmore Street over Monument Creek just east of the interchange with Interstate 25.

Here’s a look from www.FlashEarth.com:

Here’s a photo of the bridge taken by Side Streets reader Jordan Strub:

In the photo, piers 2 and 3 are visible. And one of the tilting rocker bearing can be seen at the end of pier 3. The photo is looking south from the Pikes Peak Greenway trail.

Here’s a closer look at the pier and its rocker bearings:

 Here’s an even closer look:

There are 18 rocker bearings on the two piers and they are in various stages of tilting. The worst are at 10 degrees on pier 3 while those on pier 2 measure at 5 degrees.

Engineers with the Colorado Department of Transportation say the rocker bearings don’t need to be reset until the tilting reaches 15 degrees. Below is a view from the south.

Resetting them is not eash. The bridge must be jacked up and the rockers placed precisely between the pier and girder to safely transfer the weight of the bridge.

For you hard-core engineer-wanna-be types, here is a blueprint showing a rocker bearing on the right. This is from the CDOT Web site.

This is a detail from a Colorado Department of Transportation blueprint of the bridge rocker bearings.

 CDOT bridge expert Jeff Anderson said the Fillmore Street bridge was built in 1961 and widened in 1971 and was known as bridge No. I-17-P. It was state-owned until 2007 when the city took ownership in a swap for Powers Boulevard.

While it was CDOT property, it was  inspected every two years — like every bridge in the state, Anderson said. In it’s last state inspection on Nov. 29, 2006, the bridge was given an 83 sufficiency rating on a scale of 0-100. The deck rated a 6. The superstructure a 7 on a 0-10 scale.

“That structure was still in good shape,” Anderson said, despite the tilting rocker bearings. Bridges must fall to a 50 sufficiency rating and be structurally deficient or functionally obsolete before they are replaced.

Anderson attributed the tilting rockers to natural movement in the bridge. He said it shifted east, flush against the abutment. And pier 3 moved west during a flood years ago.

Here’s a look at the east abutment. There is no gap. In fact, the railing above are smashed together.

Want to see what happens when rocker bearings fail?

Here’s a photo from July 2005 when a rocker bearing supporting a ramp on Interstate 787 in Albany, N.Y., failed.

The following is an excerpt from the August 3, 2005 edition of the Albany Times Union www.timesunion.com).

“A routine bridge inspection nearly two years ago found serious problems with the bearings supporting a section of elevated highway that ruptured and dropped 2 feet last week.

Yet, state transportation officials said they made no plans to fix the problems with the Empire State Plaza ramp before the next planned inspection this fall.

The overall rating on the 24-section ramp that links Interstate 787 northbound with the plaza was set at 5, or generally “good,” on a scale of 1 to 7 in the November 2003 inspection report. A set of bearings atop the concrete pier where the break occurred, however, received a rating of just 2.

“One of DOT’s top engineers said it’s now clear that the poorly rated rocker bearings, steel supports designed to accommodate weather-related expansions and contractions of bridge sections, could have been a factor.

“There were some low-rated bearing elements that may have had something to do with this,” said George Christian, the chief structural engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

“The set of poorly rated bearings was on the section of the ramp that remained atop the pier, sliding toward the section that tumbled from its bearings and nearly fell off. The group of bearings was rated so poorly because they were tipped at an unusually extreme angle, Christian said.

“It was tilted, definitely, more than we would have expected it to be tilted for the conditions at the time of the inspection,” he said.”

Ooops!

Here’s the full text of my Side Streets column that appeared in the June 28, 2009, Gazette:

Jordan Strub was riding his bicycle on the Pikes Peak Greenway trail when he looked up at the bridge carrying Fillmore Street high over the trail and Monument Creek.

Between the horizontal steel girders of the bridge and the vertical concrete piers that rise from the creek bed is a series of stubby, rectangular steel supports – sort of like big shoe boxes – rounded on top and bottom.

Strub noticed that many of the supports are no longer standing straight up and down. In fact, several are tilted at alarming angles.

He wondered if it was an optical illusion because of the slanting bridge, which is lower on the east and rises to meet the west abutment.

He wondered if the bridge, built in 1961 and widened in 1971, had been moving.

He wondered if the bridge was safe.

“I wondered ‘does anyone else ever notice things like this?’ ” said Strub.

Turns out, they do. A number of people besides Strub have seen the twisting, tilting rockers and contacted the city over the years.

But Strub had trouble reaching city engineers, so he contacted Side Streets – or, in this case, Side Bridges – and we got answers.

“The bridge is stable and fine,” said Dan Krueger, a senior civil engineer in Colorado Springs’ engineering department.

He explained that the tipping steel shoeboxes are called rocker bearings or panels. They were designed to rotate to compensate for movement in the bridge.

In this case, Krueger said, the bridge slid east over the years and pier 3 shifted west in a flood years ago, causing the rockers to twist and tilt.

Rockers were common on bridges of the era, although they were abandoned by engineers decades ago in favor of sliding teflon-coated steel plates and thick slabs of neoprene.

Until 2007, the bridge was owned, inspected regularly and maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation. It noted the rocking rockers as early as 1998, said Jeff Anderson, who manages the CDOT’s bridge inspection program.

“They look funny when they start to tilt,” he said.

Funny? Scary might be a better word.

Anderson said CDOT experts measured the rockers on pier 3 at a 10-degree slant. Pier 2 rockers tilt just 5 degrees. Rockers must reach 15 degrees before CDOT recommends taking action.

“It’s safe,” Anderson said.

So why not pull them out and straighten them up?

“You have to jack up the bridge and reset the rockers to vertical,” Anderson said. “It’s not really very easy.”

At one time, CDOT hoped to rebuild the Fillmore and Interstate 25 interchange and replace the bridge. But the money ran out so it sits.

Despite CDOT’s assurance the rockers have not moved in years, city experts do a visual check every 90 days, and survey crews verify its stability every six months.

“We’re just keeping an eye on it,” Krueger said. “We will monitor it indefinitely.”

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IS FILLMORE STREET BRIDGE LOSING ITS BEARINGS? OR IS IT JUST ME? is a post from: Side Streets

Residents of the Soaring Eagles neighborhood in southeast Colorado Springs thought they had won the war in 2006 when they dissuaded Wal-Mart  from building a Supercenter on 28 acres of vacant land.

Turns out, they only won the battle. On June 9, they lost the war.

The Soaring Eagles Homeowners Association asked the City Council to spike a new concept plan for the vacant land. The plan includes an anchor building that is smaller than the 207,000-square-foot behemoth proposed byWal-Mart. But at 175,000 square feet, the building would be huge.

The concept plan also calls for a dozen smaller building scattered across the property for shops and restaurants.

Here’s a look from www.FlashEarth.com at the vacant property.

Here is a drawing of the Wal-Mart project rejected in 2006.

Here is an architect’s drawing of the newly approved concept plan:

Neighbors are not happy with the new plan. They say it is still too big for the neighborhood. They fear the owners still hope to lure Wal-Mart to the property.

But Mike Schultz, city planner on the project, said it appears Wal-Mart is more likely to land on 40 acres about a half-mile to the west, along the Hancock Expressway, just south of Drennan Road.

Here’s another FlashEarth image showing the possible Wal-Mart location:

The neighborhood is considering a lawsuit to appeal the City Council decision. They have 30 days from the June 9 decision to file.

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SOARING EAGLES feeling boxed in is a post from: Side Streets

Bev Creswell and Lois Harmande wanted to help.

They were frustrated, watching for a year as their friend and neighbor Elba Noble struggled with a critically ill son, Mikey, below.

In January, Creswell and Harmande were talking about what they could do to help. They decided to get involved. And what they have accomplished in the weeks since is a textbook example for others.

Creswell and Harmande went online and researched what it takes to raise money for organ transplants and ongoing medical bills.

A key to their efforts was discovering the National Foundation for Transplants which was founded by three women in Memphis in 1983 who wanted to help a little girl in need of a liver transplant.

They took the NFT blueprint and added to it. They built a Mikey Noble Web site where they published blogs and videos they created and photos explaining the need.

          And they started a variety of projects, large and small, to get the money flowing.

They put out a plea to friends. And friends of friends. It’s a concept known as “Web spread” where a single e-mail multiplies as it fans out across the Internet.

Today, they have built a network of volunteers and raised about $25,000 for Mikey to help pay for the medicine he’ll need as recipient of a kidney transplant.

Check out the Volunteer page at his Web site to see all the different things the friends are doing.

Elba Noble says the reaction of her neighbors and friends isn’t really surprising. She said Harmande has been like this since she moved into their Rockrimmon neighborhood 15 years ago.

“I’m from the east where you stay in your house and mind your own business,” Noble said. “Lois moved in and got to know everyone. Pretty soon we were all friends on our cul de sac. She keeps an eye out on everybody. We care for each others’ houses and pets. That kind of thing.”

Their tiny Poncha Circle cul de sac became a place where the neighbors had frequent parties and kids truly grew up together. It was one big extended family.

One time, when the Nobles were out of town, their basement flooded.

“Lois noticed and when we got home, she had everyone in the cul de sac helping to move our furniture out of the basement,” Noble said.

 She can’t imagine how she’d get through her son’s illness without Creswell and Harmande and the others.

“Our cul de sac family is amazing,” Noble said.

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NEIGHBORS helping neighbors, a how-to is a post from: Side Streets

Folks in the Spring Lane at Valley Hi neighborhood are resting more comfortably in their homes. Here’s a look at the neighborhood entrance back in December when we first visited:

Peace came to Spring Lane after city crews finished installing 200 feet of guardrail along South Chelton Road.

Here’s a look at the situation in December:

 Here’s how is looked in June after city crews removed “Nature’s guardrail” and installed the real thing:

Folks there are thrilled. You can read about their situation in my Dec. 11, 2008 column. Here is a link to my blog  from Dec. 11, 2008.

Now folks in Rockrimmon are asking for help.

Over the years, a house on Dillon Circle has been the target of cars and trucks that can’t seem to recognize that Vindicator Road ends at Rockrimmon Boulevard and they must turn.

Instead, knuckleheads have crashed, over and over, through the backyard of the house, now owned by Donald and Colleen Kunecke. Here is a look at the area from www.FlashEarth.com:

Over the years, the owners of the house installed large boulders to protect themselves from maniacs on the other side of their fence. But the wrecks keep piling up along with the shattered privacy fences.

The most recent was June 3, 2009, when an SUV smashed two cars sitting at a red light, roared through the intersection, jumped the curb and destroyed a large section of fence. 

Below is a look at the intersection, with the school crosswalk sign, facing east into the Kuneckes’ backyard.

Through the hole in the fence a barrier rock is visible.

 Police identified the driver as Felicia Benjamin, 28. She was cited for driving without insurance, careless driving and driving a defective vehicle. She told police her brakes failed. 

 According to online court records, Benjamin has a long history of traffic including driving without registration, with expired plates, under suspension, for making illegal turns, and speeding. Some  charges were plea-bargained and others dismissed, the records show.

Benjamin could not be located for comment.

Here’s a look at her SUV after the wreck.

        Dave Krauth, principal traffic engineer for Colorado Springs, promised to investigate the intersection and its history of fence-destroying wrecks.

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GUARDRAILS FOR EVERYONE!!! is a post from: Side Streets

Property rights will be the heart of the debate when the El Paso County Commission takes up a request Thursday from the Gleneagle Golf Club to rezone 10.5 acres, including its driving range, to allow it to build 47 patio homes.

Here is a look at the region from www.FlashEarth.com:

Residents surrounding the golf course, led by the owners of the 28 Eagle Villas townhomes that overlook the driving range, are opposing the rezoning and patio home project. Below is a closer view from www.FlashEarth.com:

Here are preliminary architect’s drawings of the project:

Activists created an action group called GREAT, for the Gleneagle Residents’ Environmental Advocacy Team, to fight the plan.

They raised $10,000 to hire an attorney, produce documents, mailings and set up a Web site to coordinate the battle.

 Now it’s all up to the five-member County Commission to decide whether the needs of the course owner outweigh the needs of dozens of homeowners surrounding the course.  Here is a view from the course.

Here’s a link to my Feb. 24, 2008 column on Gleneagle and its driving range and my blog, as well.

And here is a followup I wrote Aug. 21, 2008 about the conflict. I blogged about it in August, as well.

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GLENEAGLE GOLF – a property rights test is a post from: Side Streets

NBC‘s newsmagazine Dateline had a powerful report Monday about a neighborhood feud in Carmel Valley, Calif., that left two people dead and another in prison for life.

It illustrated how seemingly trivial disputes can turn deadly. In this case, a fight over a four-foot patch of dirt along a shared driveway between next-door neighbors turned deadly.

Watch the report or read the transcript on the Dateline Web site.

It was shocking. 

The show explained how, on Jan. 29, 2007,  defense attorney Mel Grimes Jr., and his para-legal wife, Elizabeth, were shot to death in their driveway by their neighbor, John “Jack” Kenney, a 72-year-old petroleum engineer. Here are photos from Dateline’s Web site:

Mel and Elizabeth Grimes

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 John “Jack” Kenney

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The flashpoint for the killings? Kenney placed a one-ton boulder on the strip of land to block the Grimes’ access to their carport.

The photo, left, shows the boulder placed behind the Grimes’ van and carport. The Grimes’ house is visible above the carport area.

 The Grimes came home from work to find the boulder and Grimes immediately started trying to smash it with a sledge hammer. Kenney came out and confronted the couple with a gun, shooting each twice, then firing a third shot into Elizabeth Grimes’ back. Both died.

At trial in 2008, Kenney claimed self defense. But prosecutors refuted his claim that he was attacked by playing the a chilling tape of a 9-1-1 call made by Elizabeth Grimes as the couple came home and found their carport blocked.

The entire confrontation was captured on tape and the couple is heard being shot to death, even telling each other “I love you” with their dying breaths.

Kenney was  convicted of first-degree murder in Elizabeth Grimes’ death and second-degree murder for Mel Grimes’ killing. He is appealing his conviction.

Kenney, under arrest

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It’s a sobering story that shows how educated, successful people can allow their pride or controlling natures to drag them into ugly disputes over seemingly minor matters like driveway access.

And in this case, it led to murder. It’s a story that everyone in a dispute with their neighbors should watch or read.

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NEIGHBORHOOD MURDER . . . a cautionary tale is a post from: Side Streets

Mike Slattery bought 70 acres in the foothills south of Peregrine in 2002 and thought about building luxury log homes on big lots.

Eventually he abandoned the idea> He sold five acres which are being subdivided into five homesites. But he decided it would be better to preserve the remaining 65 acres as mostly open space with maybe one house, an equestrian center and some trails.

He conceived the Blodgett Ranch Club and is inviting neighbors to let him know if they’d be interested in joining him.

 It would be a private club. He might build a pool. Have horses for club members. A dog park. Mountain biking. Hiking trails.

Or he might have to sell the land and watch it become a private estate. Here’s a look at a map of the area.

 The property is spectacular and abuts Colorado Springs’ 167-acre Blodgett Open Space.

 Here’s a link to the master plan for the Blodgett Open Space.

Here is a map Slattery created of his property.

Below is a photo he took of his land.

To take a pulse of the neighborhood and generate interest, Slattery went old-school. He put up a sign. Here it is.

 Here’s how Slattery explains his idea:

The 65 acre agriculture-zoned Blodgett Ranch property is privately owned, but preserved in a land trust agreement with El Paso County Parks.  They inspect the entire property every year to confirm there has been no development on the property other than what was agreed years ago in the Deeds of Conservation Easement.  

The lower elevation along Centennial Blvd (currently the small horse barn, round pen and flat area immediately above) was stripped of sub-division development rights (would have been 5 luxury homes or 20+ patio homes)  This 11 acre Phase 1 parcel can only now have a commercial Equestrian Center for riding lessons, boarding and trail rides (no residential development), and includes the new City Parks trail easement donated in order to move hikers coming up from the Woodmen Valley/St Francis corridor, up through Blodgett Ranch, and into the south side of the City’s 187-acre Blodgett Peak Open Space.

 The middle Phase 2 parcel is approx 23 acres and is located on the main mesa beyond the current  antenna barn. This is where up to 18 upscale Peregrine style homes was envisioned by City Planning.  These development rights were stripped and now retains a restricted 3-acre building envelope for a future single family residence, meeting facility and pool.  This area is also where I envision a members Dog Park and outdoor concert pavilion to compliment a the social meeting facility and pool.

 The final Phase 3 is a 30 acre parcel on the Pike National Forest with over 2 miles of groomed trails for member hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, tours, etc.  This parcel will also have up to (8) authentic Indian Tipis in small clusters around the 30 acres for club members to use for family and pet overnights.

 The overall concept is for a community Conservation Club, made up of private members who own shares in the entire facility and amenities, like the Foothills swim club.  Therefore it would be good to find out what local neighbors feel is important to see in their outdoor club before decisions are made.  I don’t see building expensive infrastructure that is not needed for our Colorado outdoor lifestyle activities.  The idea is to enjoy limited amenities at a reasonable family membership cost.

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LET’S START A CLUB!! is a post from: Side Streets

But there they go!!!

In a dozen or so backyard gardens around Colorado Springs, urban farmers are nervously nurturing pumpkin plants in a race to grow the largest pumpkin in the city.

Most grow Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds, developed by Howard Dill, the godfather of immense pumpkins.

The reigning Colorado Springs champion is Marc Sawtelle, who has repeatedly produced 1,000-pound behemoths.

Here’s a photo the Gazette’s Jerilee Bennett took of Sawtelle in 2007 with one of his monsters.

Sawtelle started growing enormous pumpkins in 1990. He said his young daughter saw a photo in The Gazette of Richard Plush with a big pumpkin he had grown in his garden at his home in the Patty Jewett neighborhood.

Sawtelle said the pumpkin was 120 pounds and a city record.

“She said, Daddy why don’t you grow me a big pumpkin like that?” Sawtelle said. “So I tried it and I grew one about 82 pounds.”

Sawtelle planted pumpkins behind his southeast-area home near Fountain and Union boulevards. At the weigh-off, he met Plush. Now they compete every year for big pumpkin honors.

 Here’s another Bennett photo of Plush carving Sawtelle’s pumpkin in October 2008. That is Sawtelle’s legs hanging out of the pumpkin.

“I was pretty much hooked,” Sawtelle said. “Today, my daughter’s 22 and she thinks her dad is nuts.”

Last year, Sawtelle grew his largest pumpkin ever at 1,111 pounds. He also grew his second-largest at 1,109. They have to be moved with a small bulldozer and a crane.

Plush still grows pumpkins and has produced 400-pounders routinely. But he has not achieved the size of Sawtelle’s fruit. This is the first year in 22 that he hasn’t planted a pumpkin vine because of recent hip replacement surgery. His friends, however, are going to help him.

Brothers Ron and Doug Franzen also compete for the largest pumpkin.

Ron grew a 632 pounder last year, grown behind his home near Institute and Fillmore streets. He hopes to break his personal record this year. He also grows enormous gourds, including a 53-pounder last year.

Doug’s biggest was 225 pounds, grown at his Cragmor neighborhood home.

Huge pumpkins don’t grow by accident. It takes a lot of tender, loving care. And horse manure, ground tree leaves, grass clippings, hoop huts and hail nets.

Here’s a hoop house from ColoradoPumpkins.com

Here’s a look at Sawtelle’s yard covered by hail netting last summer. His record-setting pumpkins are visible amid the miles of vines.

The pumpkin patches are scattered across the area. Here’s a look at Sawtelle’s pumpkin patch under his hail net from www.FlashEarth.com. His house is in the center, facing Fountain Boulevard:

These guys are serious about pumpkins. Many are members of the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers Association.

Here’s a nice story by the Gazette’s Andrea Brown about the 2007 weigh-off.

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IT’S NOT EXACTLY THE INDY 500 . . . is a post from: Side Streets

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TRUTH in advertising . . . is a post from: Side Streets