This was the view from Chapel Hills Mall when the Waldo Canyon Fire exploded down into Colorado Springs' foothills neighborhood of Mountain Shadows on Tuesday, June 26, 2012.

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On Tuesday, June 26, I said goodbye to my house and my neighbors and started my life as a Rockrimmon refugee.

My heart was pounding as I made one last sweep through our little house in Raven Hills. I wondered if my family would ever celebrate another birthday here. I paused at the window where we saw so much wildlife in the woods outside. Where we always put up our Christmas tree.

In the garage, I stopped at the wall where we traced our kids’ profile, measuring their heights to document their growth over the years. I took one last picture of the shark mural in my youngest son’s bedroom, grabbed my oldest boy’s high school letterman’s jacket, took a photo of my daughter at Disney World and began our escape.

I’d fought bumper-to-bumper traffic on my way home from downtown after a 4 p.m. briefing on the Waldo Canyon fire had been interrupted by a stunning mandatory evacuation order for the Mountain Shadows and Peregrine neighborhoods just west of my ‘hood.

My 12-year-old, Ben, was home with Nugget, our beloved dog. My wife, Cary, knew evacuation would mean chaos and began an urgent trek from her west-side store to reach them and get them to safety. I wasn’t far behind as I left downtown.

Neither of us could believe what we saw: a hurricane of fire had erupted in the foothills. Cary called me describing menacing flames along 30th Street and Centennial Boulevard. I figured she must be exaggerating. Then I got closer and faced the otherworldly orange glow of the swirling clouds and winced at the ash-filled, 101-degree winds.

I joined a line of cars backed up along Rockrimmon Boulevard and Delmonico Drive like I never could have imagined.

Intersections were blocked by panicked drivers trying to escape. Sirens wailed all around. I felt trapped in a horror movie.

A friend called and described houses ablaze in Mountain Shadows and urged me to join the exodus. And we did as soon as we grabbed mementos, photo albums, computers, even a cribbage board my father-in-law made.

Cary, Ben and Nugget left as I gathered all I could. Before leaving, I checked on my neighbor across the street. He refused to evacuate with his invalid wife. It was a sickening feeling to give up my pleas and get on with my own escape.

By then, embers were falling on my shake roof and I knew it was time to jump in my Jeep and flee. If only it would start. It had choked on the smoke on the drive from downtown and wouldn’t turn over.

My head exploding, I finally coaxed it to life and headed toward Woodmen Road. Except I couldn’t get near it. Panicked evacuees had turned it into a parking lot. I had to go west, toward the flames, to escape. But that route was blocked as well.

Finally, I went into four-wheel-drive, hopped a curb, blasted down a hill, across a soccer field and over a trail to reach Rockrimmon Boulevard where six lanes of traffic were headed east on both sides of the median.

And there I sat in traffic. It’s a memory I’ll never forget. I teared up as I scanned the surrounding cars. Everywhere were children, scared and crying, their parents looking deathly afraid and, in my rearview mirror, a view of the gates of hell.

Overwhelming relief rushed over me as I reached Interstate 25 and I started putting miles between me and the apocalyptic wildfire that was consuming the foothills.

I felt guilty about abandoning my home, my neighbor who refused to evacuate and all the others still sitting, petrified, in traffic.

I was one of the lucky ones. My family was safe and we had generous friends who took us in, fed and comforted us. By Wednesday morning, it seemed our neighborhood had survived. But it’s small comfort because so many neighbors have lost so much. And this catastrophe isn’t over.

To all the victims, I can only say I’m so sorry.

Homes in Mountain Shadows burn as the Waldo Canyon fire explodes down the foothills of Colorado Springs. By Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette

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WALDO CANYON FIRE: Hell in the rearview mirror is a post from: Side Streets

A deer trots along a new 150-foot guardrail installed along Rockrimmon Boulevard by the city behind the homes of Mitch Logue and Donald and Colleen Kunecke.

To most motorists flying through the intersection of Vindicator Drive and Rockrimmon Boulevard, the new guardrail along the east side is just a blur of black and brown steel.

And, to be honest, that’s why it was installed.

Most drivers are going way too fast around the corners of the T-shaped intersection to notice. (They are too busy texting their BFFs or eating a triple-cheeseburger or applying makeup.)

But to Mitch Logue and Donald and Colleen Kunecke, the sturdy new 150-foot barrier represents peace of mind and freedom to use their backyards without fear.

It’s something most people take for granted . . . the confidence they won’t get killed in their backyard by Danica Patrick impersonators.

But that’s been a very real threat for Logue and the Kuneckes, who have the misfortune of backing up to the busy intersection, kept hopping morning and night by people racing to the adjacent Safeway Center, or the large apartment complex, or to Eagleview Middle School or commuting to Mountain Shadows and Peregrine.

I drive it daily and routinely see cars accelerating down Vindicator toward its dead-end at Rockrimmon. They turn north, two abreast, tires squealing as the wild-eyed drivers — no doubt listening to 50 Cent on their earbuds  — charge to the next light.

Between the two properties, more than a dozen cars have plowed through their fences and into their yards over the years.

Just one example of the damage Mitch Logue has endured during his years backing up to Rockrimmon Boulevard and Vindicator Drive.

Mitch Logue told me he’s replaced sections of his fence a half-dozen times in 10 years. In July 2009, he spent $3,600 replacing the entire fence. Within days a small SUV smashed through and landed in his yard, taking out a post and slats.

Before the Kuneckes bought their home next-door in 2000, a soda delivery truck came crashing into the yard. Prior to that, a pickup destroyed the fence and slammed into the dining room.

Then, on June 3, 2009, a huge, white sport utility vehicle roared down Vindicator, slammed into two cars waiting at the stoplight, lurched through the intersection, jumped the curb and blasted into the Kunecke’s backyard.

This white SUV wrapped itself around a tree in the Kuneckes' backyard in June 2009 after ramming two cars at the stoplight, plowing through the intersection and exploding through the fence.

“We were getting ready to eat dinner,” Colleen Kunecke told me at the time. “It sounded like an explosion. It scared the hell out of me.”

The SUV ended up wrapped around a tree.

Prehistoric guardrails employed by the Kuneckes to protect themselves in their yard.

To protect themselves, the Kuneckes positioned huge rocks to deflect wayward vehicles.

Both families are happy to finally get some protection from the city.

“Now I’ve got some safe area to work with,” Mitch said last week. “I’m happy.”

And he’s making plans for his yard.

“I’m thinking about putting a greenhouse back there,” he said.

The Kuneckes echoed his satisfaction.

“We were quite surprised,” Donald said. “Now we’ll be protected.”

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BLACK AND BROWN BLUR LOOKS LIKE PEACE OF MIND is a post from: Side Streets

This is the approximate route taken by Luna, a dog owned by Daryl and Cindy Anderson. Luna escaped a relative's fenced yard and made her way about three miles toward home before she was killed on railroad tracks near Rockrimmon.

Luna

Some good is coming from the sad story of Luna, the dog who escaped a fenced yard and tried to make her way home only to be killed on the railroad tracks along Monument Creek in Rockrimmon.  

Luna’s remains were found by Tom, a Rockrimmon resident, who removed the collar and called Luna’s owners, Daryl and Cindy Anderson, to inform them of Luna’s death.  

Tom called the Andersons himself because he said the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region refused to take a “deceased animal” report.  

He said HSPPR staff told him to call the Colorado Springs street department to report a dead animal. Tom was outraged and feared Luna’s owners would never know what happened to their pet.  

Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region

So he called The Gazette and Luna’s story was the subject of Monday’s Side Streets column. That’s when things happened at HSPPR.  

I received an email Monday from Jan McHugh-Smith, president and CEO of the humane society.  

She told me she was changing policy immediately to accept dead pet reports and log them in a notebook available for viewing at the society’s Lost and Found Pet area.  

Here’s the text of her note to me:  

Dear Bill,  

 After your story was published our currently policies on lost and found pets were reviewed, and we would like to update you and make some corrections to your article entitled: SIDE STREETS: Neighbor helps family get closure for lost pet, questions humane society policy.  

Jan McHugh-Smith, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region

 From this point forward, the City of Colorado Springs Street Division will directly email their finished work logs (recording dead animal description and location) to our lost and found email. We will be publishing all of the logs in a notebook in our Lost and Found Pets area. This will allow owners to read the logs, and hopefully be able to identify if their pet has been found deceased in the city. We will also match the city work logs with lost animals that have been reported to HSPPR to try to reconnect additional stray pets. 

 Our call center will also be taking found reports on deceased animals, and will try to combine logs and reports if efforts are found duplicated. 

 The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region works diligently to reunited owners with lost companion animals; we reunited 4,199 stray animals last year alone. Tom should be commended in his actions, and his Good Samaritan efforts will bring positive changes in our policies. 

 Sincerely,   

 Jan McHugh-Smith 

President and CEO  

I should note all the good work HSPPP already does on behalf of pets and their owners in the region. 

According to the 2010 annual report, the society had 21,100 pets in its care in Colorado Springs. 

It handled 7,700 adoptions in addition to the 4,199 reuinted pets and fostered 450 pets. 

It’s animal law enforcement unit responded to 24,000 calls for service and conducted 3,800 cruelty investigations. 

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CHANGE COMES QUICKLY TO HUMANE SOCIETY is a post from: Side Streets

This was Luna, the beloved pet of Daryl and Cindy Anderson and their family.

Luna

Luna was a pound puppy, adopted by the Andersons from a humane society shelter in Las Vegas about 10 years ago.

A couple weeks ago, Luna was visiting a relative’s house near Flintridge and Dublin. She apparently panicked when left in a fenced yard, dug her way out and vanished far from her home near Garden of the Gods Road and Centennial Boulevard.

Daryl said he and his sons put 100 miles on their car searching for Luna.

They reported Luna to the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, checked its kennels daily to see if Luna was among its captured strays and they scanned reports on the society’s lost pet website.

Then, late last week, Daryl received a call from a stranger who said he had Luna’s collar.

Tom, who declined to reveal his full name, had taken the collar off the dog’s remains, which he found on railroad tracks that run past Rockrimmon.

Tom had noticed Luna’s remains as he walked his own dogs along Monument Creek near Mark Dabling Boulevard in Rockrimmon.

Luna had died trying to get home from the relative’s house. (See map of Luna’s approximate route at the bottom of this blog).

She had crossed Academy and Union boulevards, Interstate 25 and the creek. But she’d failed to cross the tracks safely.

 I’m guessing she made it a few blocks north to Cottonwood Creek, followed it west to Monument Creek and then a bit south along Mark Dabling before she strayed onto the tracks.

I’d guess she’d gone about three miles!

Daryl tells me Tom and his wife not only showed him the location of Luna’s remains, they helped him retrieve the remains. He described it as “a very messy and unpleasant task.”

“Tom’s a wonderful person,” Daryl said. “That gentleman was the best ‘Good Samaritan’ that I could have run into.”

Tom said he braved the decomposing remains because he, too, had lost a pet cat, Barney, a few years ago and never learned its fate.

He didn’t want Daryl’s family to wonder about Luna, the chow mix they had adopted from a humane society in Las Vegas.

“They needed closure,” Tom said. “We never got closure with Barney.”

Normally, the story of Luna, Daryl and Tom would would end there. But this incident raised questions in Tom’s mind about how the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region deals with dead pets.

Tom was surprised to learn he could not make a “deceased animal” report after he saw Luna’s remains.

“They said they don’t do that,” he said. “They just wanted me to call the city to get it hauled away. I was more interested in reuniting it with its owner.”

So he didn’t call the city street division to retrieve the remains. That was a mistake, the society says.

Crews would’ve picked up Luna’s remains and called the society promptly.

“Every day, the city gives us detailed reports of the deceased pets they pick up,” said Erica Meyer, society spokeswoman. “If there’s a collar, they remove it, and give it to us with the report so we can call the owner.

“If there is no collar, they give us breed information, size, color, location. Then we try to match it with the lost pet reports we have.”

Allowing folks like Tom to report animal remains would cause duplication and confusion, she said.

And deceased pet reports are not displayed online, as Tom proposes, to protect owners from shock.

“Rather than putting it on the web, we have a department that notifies owners personally,” Meyer said.

“We work really hard to reunite people with their lost pets, whether they are alive or deceased.

“We have an entire unit that works on it every day.”

Meyer reminds everyone to call the Humane Society immediately if they see an injured animal or suspect it may be suffering. Don’t always assume an animal that has been struck by a car, for example, is dead.

The number is 473-1741.

To report a dead animal in the city, call the street division at 385-5934.

n El Paso County, call 520-6460.

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A LESSON IN LUNA’S SAD DEATH is a post from: Side Streets

Before moving here in 1994, I’d always lived in very urban neighborhoods in cities to the east. I was shocked to see all the wildlife that lives among the neighborhoods of Colorado Springs.

For 13 years, we’ve lived next to an open space in Rockrimmon and have a front-row seat for watching deer, coyote (I spotted this one on Christmas morning 2007), bobcat, fox.  I’m still hoping to see a rare mountain lion.

What I enjoy the most is seeing the bears. Typically, they emerge from the open space at night and trigger our security lights.

This cinammon black bear has been a regular visitor to our backyard for years. Usually, she has a cub or two following behind her.

I’ve always considered it a privilege to live so close to nature. I never considered calling the Division of Wildlife when the bears came and knocked down the neighbors’ birdfeeders or tossed open trash cans. I just shrugg it off.

I didn’t consider calling DOW after a bobcat raided my kids’ rabbit hutch and attacked my dog. I was upset but shrugged if off as the price of living among wild animals.

Last fall, I was lucky enough to watch the old, cinammon bear turn on one of her cubs, a young adult, and angrily chase him up a tree.

He had been following her and I believe she was tired of him competing with her for food and let him know it. The confrontation was dramatic and the young adult was unhappy.

Luckily, he ran up a tree just off our bedroom and we were eye-to-eye. He huffed and barked at us from the branches.

 This spring, she showed as usual with three new cubs, foraging at night mostly. The young adult came around, too. But he avoided her and made his rounds in the daytime.

We’ve spotted him in the mornings, crossing the street or digging in a neighbor’s trash which had been set at the curb for pickup.

I met  him twice this summer. The first time, I had opened my garage in the early morning to load luggage into my car for a trip. He happened to wander into the garage while I was inside the house getting our bags.

I came out and he was trying to open a refrigerator deep inside my garage in a mud room. We were both startled. I ran back inside and pounded on the walls to chase him out of the garage.

I met him again a few weeks ago. Earlier in the day, he came right up to one neighbor, chasing her into her house. He walked up the stairs to her front door before sauntering off. He was not scared of her.

That evening, he came in my garage while I was unloading groceries. He got the fridge in my mud room open and drained a gallon of juice. Then he went after a plastic trash can full of dog food.

He would not leave no matter how much I yelled at him, or threw brooms and other objects. He just glared at me and ate dog food. Finally, I ran to my car and blasted the horn until he retreated.

He came back a few minutes later, even jumped on a small wooden fence and huffed at me as I swept up the dog food. He scared me.

So I think I understand how those folks felt last week when they were confronted in their homes by bears. It’s sad six died in three days. I wish there was another solution.

 But I’m convinced this young adult is not afraid of humans and has identified houses as a source of food. He’s dangerous, in my book. Especially to my 11-year-old son.

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THEY SHOOT BEARS, DON’T THEY? is a post from: Side Streets

Look familiar? If you spend any time behind the wheel in Colorado Springs, you’ve probably seen hundreds of potholes this spring.

In fact, the city says it has filled 7,400 in the first three months of 2010. In fact, nine crews from the Street Division repaired more than 4,000 in March alone!

Sadly, they are only about halfway done. And that’s only if we don’t have any more freeze-and-thaw cycles, said Ken Winckler, operations manager for the division.

Just about all 109 of the street division staff are involved in patching potholes.

Sometimes, it looks like they are all standing around one hole, watching a single person work. At least, that’s the perception of some in the city.

Reader Frank Rakoczy recently sent The Gazette a couple photos of a street crew working on his street in Rockrimmon and wondered why only two of the seven city employees seemed to be actually working.

Below are Rakoczy’s photos. In the top photo, a city truck pulling a trailer filled with hot liquid tar is visible followed by seven men and a supervisor’s white pickup truck.

The second photo shows a closer view of the crew. One man is bent over, holding a wand that pumps hot liquid tar into cracks in the asphalt. Three men hold large squeegees that they use to push the tar into the cracks and smooth it. Two men perform traffic control and a third is the supervisor, Winckler said.

Winckler said the tar truck was led up the street by a truck pulling an air compressor. A worker walks behind the compressor truck, blowing dirt and rocks out of the cracks before the tar is pumped in to seal the cracks.

Below is a partial view of a map of Colorado Springs maintained by the street division.

The large black dots represent “open” requests for pothole repair the city has received from citizen phone calls and through e-mails to the Street Division Website. Each dot represents one pothole, even if it has received repeated calls for service.

Small grey dots represent filled potholes. 

There are a couple ways to report potholes for repair:

• Call the Pothole Hotline (leave a message): 385-6808
• E-mail: streetdivision@springsgov.com

To learn more about how the city repairs its streets, follow this link to the city’s Web site.

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POTHOLES MAKE STREETS RESEMBLE MOON CRATERS is a post from: Side Streets

State Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument

Rep. Amy Stephens, a Monument Republican, has introduced a little bill in the 2010 Colorado General Assembly that would have a big impact on small homeowners associations.

Stephens’ bill, House Bill 1290, would allow small HOAs to exempt themselves from the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, a law enacted in 1992 to govern condominium and townhome complexes as well as large neighborhoods that have jointly owned parks, trails, open space and covenants.

She calls it a matter of “common sense” because large condos and townhome

Jan Doran

complexes and sprawling subdivisions like Woodmoor with its 3,000 homes have much different issues than small single-family neighborhoods that were commonly build in the 1970s and ’80s.

To Jan Doran, administrator of the Discovery neighborhood homeowners association in Rockrimmon, it’s a matter of fairness.

Her HOA collects just $30 a year in dues from its 329 homeowners. That’s not even $10,000 in annual revenue. She said the HOA can’t afford all the government mandates handed down in recent years by the General Assembly.

It maintains a Web site where it posts all its covenants, bylaws, budgets, audits, reports and meeting minutes. But then there are the reports the HOA must produce for real estate agents and prospective buyers in addition to Discovery residents.

Attorney Lenard Rioth says an oversight in 1992 led to older, smaller HOAs to remain under the rule of CCIOA while newer, smaller HOAs were exempt. He said it’s time to allow the older, smaller HOAs like Discovery to opt out, too, if they like.

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SMALL HOAS SEEK FAIRNESS FROM COLORADO LAWMAKERS is a post from: Side Streets

Folks in Rockrimmon are not convinced the Pure Medical storefront that opened in December is anything more than a drug dealer in the neighborhood.

Pure Medical dispenses medical marijuana and has two stores in Colorado Springs — it’s store in the shopping center at Rockrimmon Boulevard and Delmonico Drive and another downton on Tejon Street.

Here’s a look at the area from FlashEarth:

 Even though access to the windowless store is restricted to people with official medical marijuana cards, folks in Rockrimmon are upset about its existence in the same shopping center where neighborhood kids get candy and soda at the convenience store, or doughnuts, deli and sub sandwiches and pizzas.

Some residents have reached out to their homeowners associations.

The Comstock Village Homeowners Association sent out a survey to its 540 homeowners to get a sense of the feeling toward Pure Medical. Their survey was a response to a group of homeowners who spoke at a recent board meeting.

The Council of Neighbors and Organizations, or CONO, which represents the HOAs in the city, also is concerned.

It’s unclear what, if anything, anyone can do about the dispensaries until the Colorado General Assembly acts on proposals to regulate the budding industry.

The problem has been 10 years in the making. In 2000, voters decided to amend the Colorado Constitution in 2000 to legalize medical marijuana for “persons suffering from debilitating medical conditions.”

The issue erupted in 2009 after the U.S. Justice Department announced it would not actively prosecute medical marijuana businesses. Didn’t matter that marijuana remains an illegal drug under federal law. Dispensaries blossomed.

Check out these two Web sites catering to folks seeking dispensaries. One is the WeedMaps.com and the other is DispensaryDigest.com :

In fact, Sheriff Terry Maketa recently said there are about 38 medical-marijuana dispensaries in El Paso County but only about three in unincorporated areas.

Colorado Springs has a task force studying what to do with the dispensaries.

And the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which maintains a medical marijuana registery, is lobbying state lawmakers for laws to allow better regulation.

For example, it doesn’t want doctors to be able to profit from recommending people to the medical marijuana registry. And it wants tools to ensure doctors have not had their registrations revoked or suspended by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Besides being a political issue, it’s a legal question being played out in state courts. Marijuana dispensary owners are suing for the right to sell pot, arguing communities can’t ban the dispensaries.

Some cities, including the Denver suburb of Centennial, counter that cities can prohibit businesses that violate federal law.

Fourteen states permit medical marijuana, but pot remains illegal under U.S. law.

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MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY OR DRUG DEALER? is a post from: Side Streets

South Face is an upper-middle-class neighborhood of about 250 houses built in Rockrimmon beginning in 1993. They are nice houses, multi-level with fancy street lights and well-kept landscaping. 

 South Face sits on the north side of Vindicator Drive, across from Ute Valley Park.  

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Folks there were surprised a month or so ago when a new sign appeared attached to a city traffic sign. Here’s the sign:

The sign sure looks official.

And it was attached to a city traffic sign at the entrance to the neighborhood. Check it out below:

The signs were erected by the South Face Community Association board. The board is determined to enforce covenants that prohibit parking on city streets overnight. Cars must be in driveways. Or else.

Some neighbors were shocked. Some called the Colorado Springs Police Department. Some called Side Streets.

The common question: Can an HOA tow away a car parked legally on a public street?

Neighboring Eagle’s Nest neighborhood has a similar warning attached to a stop sign:

 If both neighborhoods are doing it, it must be legal . . . right?

 Actually . . . no.

CSPD Sgt. Lonnie Spanswick, the parking enforcement guru, said police are the only agency authorized to tow cars from public streets. Absent a court order from a judge, any HOA board calling  a tow truck to enforce covenants about parking on city streets is asking for trouble.

Specifically, they are asking for a criminal charge of motor vehicle theft.

Spanswick said covenants are not law. And HOA boards are not police. They can NOT simply call a tow truck and haul off a car parked in violation of covenants.

Attorney Lenard Rioth said South Face has not towed any cars and would not do so without a court order — a lengthy process in civil court.

He said the signs were erected because some in the neighborhood simply won’t follow the rules they promised to honor when they bought their homes.

Rioth said the streets are narrow, creating safety issues if they are lined with cars at night. They become difficult to plow in snowy weather.

Then there’s the principle involved. Covenants are not dictated to residents. They are self-imposed. Why, Rioth asked, do people move into covenant-protected neighborhoods only to ignore the rules?

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HOA BOARDS BETTER THINK TWICE BEFORE TOWING CARS is a post from: Side Streets

The Colorado Department of Transportation ought to just park a backhoe and dump truck along Rusina Road so they’ll be handy the next time it decides to rebuild the adjacent Garden of the Gods Road exit off of Interstate 25.

Here’s a look at the interchange from FlashEarth:

The problem is to the left of I-25, on the north side of Garden of the Gods Road, where the exit ramp abuts Rusina Road.

Here’s a better look at the trouble spot that developed after CDOT rebuilt the exit in 2006.

Imagine trying to get off I-25 onto Garden of the Gods during the evening rush hour when hundreds of Pinecliff and Rockrimmon residents are trying to cut in front of you to turn north on Rusina.

Happened every day and caused a lot of wrecks. Folks in Mountain Shadows neighborhood feared someone would get killed and lobbied CDOT for changes. Here’s a previous Side Streets on their complaints.

So CDOT held neighborhood meetings and decided the safest option was to stop traffic from turning off Garden of the Gods onto Rusina. They painted a solid white stripe and erected plastic pylons to prevent the turns.

But neighbors howled in objection. They wanted their shortcut back. More meetings and some hard-ball politics led to the installation of a stop sign on the far right-turn lane and a traffic signal on the middle right-turn lane. Here’s the Side Streets column I wrote on that development.

The idea was to stop interstate traffic to give preference to the neighborhood shortcutters.

Now, CDOT is plowing up the exit once again. The signs and signals were too confusing. So they are simplifying the intersection. You can see some of the signs that left motorists befuddled:

Here’s a look at the construction already underway and the plans for the new exit. One of the islands is already removed and the exit is being widened to create a double right-turn lane:

 Here is a drawing, taken from CDOT blueprints, showing the previous allignment and the new design.

 Next is a crude drawing on a FlashEarth photo of how the new exit will look.

For you history buffs, here’s a link to a blog I posted in September 2007 on the Rusina Road cross-over controversy. It was just the second blog I had ever posted. You might chuckle at the contrast between it and the long-winded blogs I create today.

DOING THE RUSINA ROAD SHUFFLE! is a post from: Side Streets