MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. — The Manitou Springs City Council discussed recommendations on the re-opening and management of the Manitou Springs Incline during a work session meeting Tuesday.
The Manitou Springs Incline was closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak for safety concerns not being followed by incline users. These safety measures were based on state recommendations for social distancing and other virus protection guidelines.
ACTION PLANS DISCUSSED IN THE MEETING:
- Keeping the incline closed
- Re-opening the incline with COVID-19 guidelines
- Re-opening the incline after a new management plan is in place
Council members are strongly considering a proposal for a reservation system, meaning people will need to make a reservation and possibly pay a fee before being allowed up the incline.
According to the proposal, Manitou Springs can no longer support 5000+ vehicle trips up and down Ruxton on the weekend or 333 vehicles per hour or 3000+ pedestrians per day or 200 people per hour.
After careful review of as much data as possible, the staff recommends that the best solution to implement an Incline Reservation System (IRS). The reason we believe this is best method is that it allows total control to scale up or down the use in a timely manner. With the current COVID issue and with past capacity problems, we could easily change the per hour incline user limit at a touch of a button. This would also allow us to change the levels based on special events, construction issues, etc.
DOLE GREBENIK, CITY ENGINEER (PE) & ROY CHANEY, DEPUTY CITY ADMINISTRATOR (CPRP)
Council members also discussed Porta-Toilets with wash stations and hand sanitizing stations being placed at the base.
One common theme of the meeting was the group wants to open the incline as soon as possible, but as safe as possible.
Council members have yet to officially decide when the incline will reopen.
