The downtown Colorado Springs intersection of Platte and Nevada avenues has been vexing drivers and the city for a long time.
That's because the intersection also pays tribute to the city's founder, General William Jackson Palmer, with a large statue of him sitting tall upon his horse. The statue is in the middle of the intersection.
"There isn't another intersection like that in the city," said Todd Frisbie, Colorado Springs' traffic engineer. "It's unique."
A study completed in 2024 suggested two possible solutions to help address the challenges of General Palmer in the intersection: limiting some left turns, which was implemented in 2023, and the possibility of rebuilding the intersection as a roundabout. It would improve "integration of (the) General Palmer statue into the intersection."
"Drivers who want to turn left must drive past the statue to make a left turn," the report said, "which is an unorthodox and difficult maneuver."
But a new study from the city said it would be too cost-prohibitive for a roundabout to ring around the general and his horse.
"Likely in the $5-6 million range," Frisbie said in a statement.
The high cost estimate comes in part because Platte Avenue is four lanes feeding into the intersection.
"In a nutshell," Frisbie said, "the main finding was that if we're going to put in a roundabout at this location, you have to maintain the existing number of lanes on both Nevada and Platte Avenue to provide a roundabout that provides sufficient traffic operations for the area.
"This would only increase the size and cost of a roundabout," he said. "And the impacts to property and drainage and maintaining traffic during construction are all challenges that make roundabouts difficult to implement in an already built environment."
So for now, Frisbie said he'll wait for more data to see how well the 2023 change to limit left turns has worked to curb problems, though he noted that data for the roundabout research showed some drivers were still attempting to illegally make left turns.
As for potentially moving the statue?
"That's not a decision for me to make," Frisbie said. "My role is to work with the situation that we have and try to make it as safe as possible for all users."
