At the pickleball courts on the south end of Monument Valley Park, a barricade sits across the west-side Greenway Trail. A matching barricade sits up by the Duck Pond. Between them, a crane is lifting new deck trays onto a bridge that first opened to traffic in the spring of 1936.
The Cache La Poudre Street/Mesa Road Bridge has been closed to all users since April 20. The city's goal is to keep the bridge it has, not build a new one, and that choice shapes the park this fall. With the one mid-park crossing out of service, Monument Creek splits the park into an east side and a west side. Until the work wraps up, visits go best when you plan around that split.
A Bridge the City Decided to Keep
The bridge is 232 feet long. It was built with Works Progress Administration funding after a flood in May 1935 destroyed the rustic bridge that stood there before. The city calls it the only remaining Art Deco bridge in El Paso County. Monument Valley Park itself is older. General William Jackson Palmer established it, it opened to the public in 1907, and it joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
KKTV reported on Oct. 1 that the roughly $4 million project is meant to preserve the nearly 90-year-old bridge rather than replace it. By then, crews had removed the concrete deck and stripped the paint from the steel girders and bearings underneath. Ryan Phipps, the city's Capital Improvements Manager, told the station why that stage mattered:
"We remove all the paint from the girders, we remove the paint from the bearings, all of the stuff that's underneath, and so that's a huge milestone is to get to that point so that we can start putting everything back together."
The next step is to set trays over the exposed beams and then pour a new concrete deck. A Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority committee packet lists the construction contract at $4,125,727.28, plus a separate $497,839 contract for construction management and inspection. The project is funded through PPRTA.
The Same Approach the City Took at Duck Lake
This is the second time in about a year that the city has spent real money in this park restoring old work. In October 2025, the city celebrated the end of its $1.5 million Duck Lake restoration. Crews rebuilt the lake with a stone cap and aeration and restored the historic stonework on the levee walls. They also added native plantings and four flower beds and improved access to the Greenway.
That stonework comes from the same era as the bridge. The park's National Register nomination describes the sandstone retaining walls along Monument Creek as a 1930s flood-control feature. It also notes Art Deco chevron detailing on the sides and abutments of the bridge deck. The city surveyed the WPA walls, light standards and facia panels as part of the bridge design. Its project page says the original lighting and fixtures will be reused or replicated as closely as possible, and new signage will match the existing signs.
The city's project page lists these changes:
- A replacement deck
- Wider sidewalks
- Roadway and drainage improvements
- New bridge lighting
- Updated accessibility
- Better trail crossings at both the east and west ends
Preservation takes longer than a straight replacement, and residents feel that time as a park split down the middle.
How the Park Splits Right Now
The city's guidance comes down to one rule: park on the side of Monument Creek where your activity is. On the east side, parking is described as extremely limited. The city also asks Colorado College users to park east of the creek.
| Where you're headed | How to get there during construction |
|---|---|
| Pickleball courts | Drive in on Glen Avenue at Uintah Street and use the lot west of the bridge, or walk in on the trail from the south |
| Horticultural Art Society Demonstration Gardens | Drive in on Glen Avenue at Uintah Street |
| Picnic pavilion | Glen Avenue at Uintah Street, park on the west side |
| Colorado College | Follow the marked detours and park on the east side of the creek |
| Crossing the creek on foot or bike | The Uintah Street bridge or the pedestrian bridge at the south end of the park |
The Demonstration Gardens and the City Greenhouse sit at the northeast corner of Mesa Road and Glen Avenue. The Horticultural Art Society's own site gives the same directions: head south from Uintah on Glen and park west of the bridge.
The Greenway Closure Inside the Bridge Closure
The bridge closure began in April. A second, shorter closure started on Monday, Oct. 12, when the crane arrived. Lifting the concrete deck panels into place means closing the Greenway Trail on the west side of Monument Creek for up to four weeks. The barricades stand at the Duck Pond north of the bridge and at the pickleball courts south of it. If the work runs the full four weeks, the closure lasts until about Nov. 9. A small limited-use stretch of trail near the courts and the gardens stays open.
The city lays out the detour like this:
- Heading south: Cross Monument Creek on the Uintah Street bridge and pick up the eastern leg of the Greenway.
- Heading north: Cross at the pedestrian bridge near the south end of the park to reach the eastern leg.
- Once you're on the east side: The trail stays open, with the same short pedestrian detour that has been there since spring.
The project page still says the west side of the trail is "fully open." That line was written before the crane work and is out of date. The Oct. 9 closure notice is the one to follow.
Phipps told KKTV the crane "has to sit and take up space to load all of those trays onto the bridge," which is why the trail on that side has to close while the east side stays open.
November Changes the Clock, Too
The trail closure is likely to end about a week after the park's seasonal hours change. A Gazette trail guide from March lists Monument Valley Park's hours as 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. from November through April and until 10 p.m. from May through October. Evening walkers lose an hour of park time at the start of the month, while the west-side Greenway may still be closed.
The north end of the park is a good place to go meanwhile. The same Gazette guide places the Geologic Column next to the north-end playground and describes its layers of colored rock. That area also has the park's baseball, softball and soccer fields. The south end has the lighted tennis and pickleball courts, basketball and sand volleyball courts, two fishing ponds and the picnic shelters, all part of a park the city lists at 153.4 acres.
When the Two Sides Rejoin
The city has two timelines out right now. The project page says the bridge and the Cache La Poudre/Mesa Road curve, which is serving as a staging area, stay closed through the end of 2026. KKTV's Oct. 1 report says the city hopes to reopen the bridge by winter, with some work possibly running into spring. Treat either date as a target, not a promise.
There is also a longer timeline. On Sept. 3, the city released a draft citywide Park System Master Plan, which it describes as a 10- to 15-year guide for parks, trails, open spaces and cultural services. City Council's readings were scheduled for Oct. 12 and Oct. 27.
Friends of Monument Valley Park was among the groups the city consulted on the bridge design, along with nearby neighborhoods, Colorado College, historic preservation groups and the bicycling community. The Friends group also runs free programs in the park. Its 2026 calendar included four Musical Mondays concerts in July on the lawn west of the Fine Arts Center and a Fall Tree Walk on Oct. 3. Its site at fmvp.net is the place to watch for whatever the group plans after the bridge reopens.
For now, check which side of the creek you're headed to before you drive over, then use the Uintah Street bridge or the south pedestrian bridge to cross on foot or bike.
Jennifer has spent more than 25 years watching neighborhoods across the Pikes Peak region change, from Old North End streets near the park to projects like this bridge rebuild. If you're thinking about how a home within walking distance of Monument Valley Park fits your next move, JenSellsHomesCO can talk it through with you. Schedule a Consultation and bring your questions about Colorado Springs.
