Local streets have crowns for draining

STREET CROWNS: Why do the streets in Colorado Springs not have a crown to them forcing water run off to the side of the roads? Dublin, Powers, Woodmen, Union and Academy to name a few have no crown, and the runoff runs across from the middle to the side or side to the middle creating icy conditions when it freezes. This is the only place that I’ve lived that doesn’t build a crown into the roads.
- Greg Leikam

ANSWER: The roads have 2 percent crowns, a city and national standard, according to Robin Kidder, city roadway manager. “From the center of the road, it slopes 2 percent to the gutter. If you go more than 2 percent, you have icing problems with parked cars not being able to get away from parking spaces. It’s enough crown to drain but not so much it isn’t drivable.”

Kidder says that in situations where the road curves, such as Academy and Dublin boulevards, “when you go into a curve, the whole road has to slope — picture the Indy 500 — and when that happens, those lanes can’t drain to the gutter, they drain to the median.”