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Heavy equipment clears away trees and the
nearly century-old stone wall along Columbia Road a short distance north of
Colorado Avenue as part of the Westside Avenue Action Plan project. In the
background can be seen the main office for the Garden of the Gods RV Resort.
The work will make it possible later this year for southbound Columbia to have a
second lane (for right turns) at Colorado Avenue. The new fence/wall reusing
some of the stones is to be built somewhere between the old wall and temporary
chainlink fence. The trees will not be replaced.
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With Columbia Road closed both ways between
Colorado and Pikes Peak Avenue (where the photo was taken from, looking
south), widening work started in earnest on the roadway June 20. Note that the old
stone wall and mature trees were still in place (although the roughly
4-foot-high wooden fence that had sat on the wall between the pillars had already
been taken down). This photo can be compared with
the photo just below, which was shot two days later, also looking south on
Columbia.
Stone wall, trees removed on Columbia for WAAP project; some of stones to be reused
June 23, 2018They were historic. Now they're history.
But they're coming back - at least to some extent.
They're the hundreds of stones left over from the heavy-equipment demolition of the low wall (topped by wooden fencing) that for nearly a century has marked
In a photo taken June 22, from about the same
vantage point as the one above (and two days later), the remains of the stone wall
and trees are seen as the clearing work continues. The chain link fence separating
the Garden of the Gods RV Resort driveway from the work zone is temporary.
Some of the old stones are to be reused for a new fence/wall after Columbia is
widened about 15 feet.
Westside Pioneer photo
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The removal of the wall/fence - as well as 10 or so mature trees that stood next to them - is part of the $35.5 million Westside Avenue Action Plan (WAAP) project design.
The cleared space will allow Columbia to be widened about 15 feet between Colorado and Pikes Peak avenues, making room for a southbound right-turn lane in the coming months when WAAP transforms Colorado/Columbia into an intersection with a stoplight at the new Adams Crossing Bridge.
The new boundary will be mostly cedar fence, broken up at intervals by “pilasters” (pillars) reusing the old rock, plans show. A project document states that “any additional rock not used in the privacy fence pilasters will be stockpiled for potential use in a historic mitigation site near the Manitou sign.”
As for the trees, they will not be replaced. "The widening left little to no room" to do so, according to Steve Murray, the lead design consultant on the project.
Originally called Stonewall Park (Stonewall Cottages by the 1950s), the campground was developed with its namesake walls in 1922. According to local historian Mel McFarland, that was a time when tourists traveling by auto was starting to become popular. The site retains that camping spirit to this day as the 13-acre, 154-space Garden of the Gods RV Resort.
What's now the resort property was once the home of prominent citizen Charles Adams. He died in the 1880s, but Adams Crossing (the name acknowledges the former intersection there of railroad and street car tracks as well as the avenue and the creek) became its lasting nickname. Into at least the 1950s, Adams' former house (torn down in the '60s) was the office building of Stonewall Cottages.
Other sections of the old stone wall follow Columbia north of Pikes Peak Avenue and along El Paso Boulevard. These sections will remain in place.
Columbia Road has been closed between Pikes Peak and Colorado since mid-June to allow the work there. The street widening will be preceded by underground
This is how the entrance used to look for the
Garden of the Gods RV Resort. It will look about the same when the project is
complete, but farther back (northwest) because the new bridge over Colorado
Avenue is being built about 50 feet north of the old one.
Westside Pioneer file photo
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Another section of the property's stone wall was in place along its south boundary. It's being removed in its entirety because the new bridge is being built 50 feet north of the old one. To make room, the WAAP project had to buy about a half- acre strip along that part of the resort property.
Removing the wall wasn't as simple as surveying the site and hauling in the equipment. Barron pointed out that Colorado's State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) required documentation of the old stonework and that the wall be “memorialized” in some way (details not yet known).
A chainlink fence will eventually mark the new resort boundary on its south side, he said.
According to RV Resort general manager Scott McConnaughey, the campground will keep “a small quantity” of the stones from the old wall for future landscaping needs.
Although the WAAP project continues to be tough on business - thanks to the close-by noise, dust and traffic - he described it as “necessary pain” that will result in a better situation overall.
As a result of the property negotiations between the resort and the WAAP project, other wall-realignment changes in the project will be:
- The entrance-only access to the resort at the Colorado/Columbia intersection, which McConnaughey believes will be made more user-friendly with the stoplight.
- The in/out access on Columbia near Pikes Peak Avenue. It will be moved south so that (intentionally) it no longer lines up directly with Pikes Peak. Vehicles exiting will only be allowed to go right. The new fence/wall will be on either side of this access and extend 60 to 80 feet to the north, Barron said.
- The creation of a new right-turn-only exit on the campground's north side onto El Paso Boulevard.
The 15 feet for the Columbia widening resulted from WAAP buying property from the resort. Fortunately, the resort has a wide driveway, McConnaughey observed. Even with the widening, “we will have plenty of room, with two lanes coming in,” he said. “It will work pretty well.”
The overall WAAP project, which is rebuilding the avenue for about 1 1/2 miles west of 31st Street, is slated for "substantial completion" by the end of this year, according to Barron.
Westside Pioneer article
(Projects:
Westside Avenue Action Plan)
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A crew tears down some of the stone wall along
Columbia Road as part of a southerly relocation of the RV resort's long-time
access at the T-intersection of Columbia and Pikes Peak Avenue.
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This photo looking south on Columbia Road
from Pikes Peak Avenue was taken June 26. It shows that a great deal of clearing
has taken place since work started to demolish the old stone wall and trees beside
it. (Compare with the photos taken a few days earlier at the top of this page.)
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