At Woodland Hills Drive, the marked crosswalk over Union Boulevard carries the Cottonwood Creek Trail across its one major street crossing. This fall, bridge crews are working right beside it. The City began maintenance on the Union Boulevard bridge over Cottonwood Creek on Wednesday, Oct. 14. Crews are closing one outside lane at a time between Woodland Hills Drive and Deliverance Drive for about eight weeks, and trail users may see brief closures or delays while flaggers guide them through.
The bridge job is the smallest of three projects now touching this trail. Restoration work is underway at the Powers end, and earlier this month the City put out bids for a second creek project that runs west from Union to Academy. The Briargate stretch most people know, the dirt loop between Union Boulevard and Rangewood Drive, sits between the two. This winter it is still open ground. From 2027, the plans put work on both sides of it.
The East End Has Been a Construction Site Since Summer 2025
The City's Cottonwood Creek Restoration Phase 2 begins where the creek meets Powers Boulevard, just north of the Powers and Woodmen intersection. It runs about 4,000 feet west, downstream, behind the Academy School District 20 bus barn. The City lists construction from summer 2025 through the end of 2027.
The reason is in the creek bed. Cottonwood Creek drains rainwater from the northeast side of town west to Monument Creek. The City's project page describes it as a sandy system that has eroded more than 10 feet deep in places as the area developed. Some sections now sit below the floodplains that would normally slow that erosion, and the erosion threatens bridges, gas, sewer and electrical lines, and the vegetation along the banks. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing $10 million in construction funding through its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, with matching money from the City's Stormwater Enterprise and Colorado Springs Utilities. The City says the finished corridor is meant to be "welcoming to both wildlife and people."
The City posted a Cottonwood Creek Trail detour plan in October 2025. It marks several trail sections closed, shows a detour, and warns of a crossing used by construction vehicles. The map is a year old and the project has more than a year left, so the signs at the trail are the better guide to which segments are open on a given morning.
Union Boulevard Is This Fall's Pinch Point
The bridge maintenance at Union is a separate job from the creek restoration. The City describes it as routine repair plus fencing improvements, and traffic stays open in both directions throughout. KRDO reported the same eight-week estimate and the same possible trail delays.
Counting eight weeks from Oct. 14 puts the end of the work around the second week of December. The City notes that schedules depend on weather and may change, so an early snow could push that back. Until it wraps, anyone heading from the loop toward the western half of the trail should expect to pass the busiest point on the corridor at its most crowded.
The Loop in the Middle
The stretch between the two creek projects is the one Trails & Open Space Coalition singles out in its Cottonwood Creek Trail profile. A dirt trail runs alongside the concrete between Union Boulevard and Rangewood Drive, and the two together make a loop of about 3 miles, with parking at Cottonwood Creek Community Park. The rest of the trail is just over 6 miles of smooth concrete, from near Frank Castello Park at Powers Boulevard west to the Pikes Peak Greenway and Front Range Trail near I-25.
Here is what matters in the loop this winter:
- Park hours change Nov. 1. City parks open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. from November 1 through April 30, and the seasonal restrooms close from October through May. For a walk at dusk, the restrooms will already be closed and the 9 p.m. closing applies.
- The park is more than a parking lot. The City's Cottonwood Creek Park page lists the park at 7040 Rangewood Drive, at Dublin Boulevard and Rangewood. It has a playground, four soccer fields, three softball and baseball fields, tennis courts, an in-line hockey court, disc golf, accessible walking and running paths, and the Cottonwood Creek Recreation Center with its indoor pool.
- The YMCA is on the trail network. The Cottonwood Creek YMCA at 3920 Dublin Boulevard posts hours of 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Trails & Open Space Coalition lists the YMCA among the trail's neighborhood access points.
- Dublin Park takes some care. A spur leads to Dublin Park, but getting there means crossing Dublin Boulevard, which has no designated pedestrian crossing.
- Leashes stay on. City rules require dogs to be leashed in parks and on trails except in designated off-leash areas, and Cottonwood Creek Park is not on the City's list of dog parks and dog runs.
From the loop, the trail also connects to the Woodmen Trail, and it runs west under Woodmen Road and Academy Boulevard toward the Greenway. That western route is where the next project lands.
What December Sets in Motion West of Union
On Oct. 9, 2026, the City issued Request for Proposal R26-093CA for the Cottonwood Creek Stabilization, Academy to Union. The estimated project size is $4 million to $6 million. It covers about 4,325 feet of the creek between the Union and Academy Boulevard crossings. The listed work includes grouted boulder drop structures, removing old grade control structures, significantly raising incised channel grades, flattening over-steepened side slopes, stabilizing the banks, building and rehabilitating pipe outfalls, and replanting what construction disturbs.
The RFP describes the working room this way.
"The construction access on this project and overall project staging will be a complex and vital consideration for the contractor due to the tight creek corridor located between homes and the Cottonwood Creek Trail."
The bid package includes replacing damaged concrete trail used for construction access near Magnum Court. It also requires the contractor to submit a traffic-control plan covering pedestrians, detour signs and protections for people walking and biking. The actual detour route will come from whichever contractor wins the bid, so no trail plan exists yet.
The schedule is set in the procurement calendar:
- Oct. 23, 2026: deadline for bidder questions
- Nov. 9, 2026: proposals due by 3 p.m.
- December 2026: contract award
- Notice to proceed: on contract execution, starting an 18-month performance period
This is a bid schedule, and construction dates depend on when the contract is signed. Still, an 18-month clock that starts after a December award runs well into 2027 and past it. Phase 2 at Powers is scheduled through the end of 2027. If both run on time, next year brings creek construction east and west of the Union-to-Rangewood loop at the same time, with Union Boulevard as the hinge between them.
Using the Trail Between Now and Then
For the next several weeks, the trail picture is fairly simple. Neither creek project's description names the Union-to-Rangewood loop from Cottonwood Creek Community Park. The Union crossing may be slowed by bridge crews into December. East toward Powers, the posted signs override any map. West of Union, the stretch toward Academy is still ordinary trail until a contractor mobilizes after the award.
If you find an icy underpass, a downed sign or a damaged section, the City's GoCOS reporting tool has Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services and Roads and Sidewalks categories for reporting it. The City designates its urban trails for walking, jogging, biking and skating. A 13.5-mile paved route still runs from Powers Boulevard to Uintah Street via the Santa Fe Regional Trail and the Pikes Peak Greenway, with or without the creek work.
Jeanne and The Elite Team keep track of projects like the Academy-to-Union contract because a creek project can change the feel of a street for a year and a half, and owners near the trail usually want to know before it starts. If you live along Cottonwood Creek and want to talk about what the 2027 work could mean for your plans, schedule your free market consultation and we'll go through it with you.
