Grant will allow completion of path from downtown to Manitou

Cyclists soon will be able to reach open spaces they love to ride without braving traffic first, thanks to a grant to complete a bike path between downtown Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs.

Great Outdoors Colorado gave $590,796 in state lottery funds Friday to Colorado Springs to complete the Midland-Creekwalk Trail.

The trail follows Fountain Creek west from America the Beautiful Park but ends at 21st Street.

The 2.5-mile extension will connect to Manitou Springs and popular open space parks and mountain trails.

Construction is expected to begin in late spring 2009.

"Garden of the Gods, Section 16, Red Rock - the trail provides great access to some of our best open spaces," said Aimee Cox, a senior analyst with Colorado Springs' parks department. "But just as important, this is a direct route connecting major parts of the city, so we think it will be a major commuting corridor."

Already, the trail's finished portion sees an estimated 80,000 users per year.

It will likely see tens of thousands more as bikers who use Pikes Peak Avenue through Old Colorado City to go east and west, then shift a few blocks south at 21st Street.

The path has been a top priority of the city's trail program for at least five years, Cox said. But a number of factors, including numerous landowners and uncertainties of the plan to expand U.S. Highway 24, slowed progress.

"The biggest issue is that it's very expensive," Cox said, because the trail includes four bridges over Fountain Creek.

The $2.3 million project will be paid for by Colorado Springs' TOPS program, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Manitou Springs Open Space Program and the Manitou Springs Park and Recreation Fund.

The grant covers only about a third of the cost, Cox said, "But it was critical to pushing the project over the top so we could get started."

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Contact the writer: 636-0223 dave.philipps@gazette.com