Access to trail near Arkansas River to be briefly restricted for Southside dam project

Pueblo Water will temporarily restrict access to a trail near City Park so it can safely continue its reconstruction of the Southside Diversion Dam and Raw Water Intake facility. 

In a news release Wednesday, the agency stated that a trail that runs between City Park and the Wild Horse Creek Bridge south of the Arkansas River will be closed so crews can continue constructing its Waterworks Park project. 

A trail on the north end of the river that runs between Pueblo Boulevard and the same bridge will remain open. 

It’s unclear exactly how long the closure will last, but work to install a new pedestrian bridge in the area will take at least several weeks, said Joe Cervi, public relations specialist for Pueblo Water. 

In the release, Pueblo Water noted that the closure is in place to “ensure the safety of visitors and construction workers.” It went into effect on Wednesday.

Pueblo Water and Holcim WCR, the project’s contractor, began the rehabilitation effort in November. The project seeks to improve safety on that portion of the Arkansas River and will revitalize the area with a water park, which, in part, will allow people to better navigate downstream. 

A series of six drops, or pools, will be built along the north side of the river and will fall incrementally at a total of 12 feet. Each pool will be about 3 to 4 feet deep and feature “beaches” alongside them if people want to temporarily exit the water. 

The area’s 12-foot dam will be replaced with a chute spillway that will offer people a “safer and less dangerous” path downstream, said Seth Clayton, executive director of Pueblo Water. The project’s design maintains some of the dam’s key functions, including the ability to divert water to the Riverside Dairy Ditch.

The new pedestrian bridge will tie into a new trail system, which will connect with an existing trail near the north end of the river. A separate pedestrian bridge that’s currently there will no longer be relocated upstream but instead removed to make way for the new one, Cervi said.

The $11 million project is mostly covered by a nearly $10 million low-interest loan Pueblo Water secured from the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The city, county and Pueblo Conservancy District each pitched in $325,000, while Pueblo Water will pay the remaining costs.

Pueblo Water first announced the project in 2021. The agency accelerated efforts to complete it after a father and son drowned on that stretch of the river when they were ejected from their raft. 

At the time of the project’s start, construction was estimated to last between 10 and 12 months.

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Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.