The capstone to a four-year effort to revitalize Manitou Springs’ main street – a controversial roundabout at the juncture of Manitou and Ruxton avenues – will officially open May 22.

The roundabout is designed, in part, to relieve chronic congestion on narrow, hilly Ruxton, where traffic can back up for blocks during the height of the summer tourism season as drivers attempt to turn onto Manitou Avenue, said Michael Leslie, deputy city administrator.

Leslie and some nearby business owners say the roundabout has been less than fully embraced by locals, with some predicting bedlam when gawking tourists, rushing locals and old guys driving RVs all collide on a hot summer’s day.

“I haven’t talked to anyone who thought it was a good idea,” said Linda Reed, owner of Osburn’s Gift Shop, on the southeast side of the roundabout. “I think it’s going to be a nightmare.”

Art Wanless likes what the city has done at the intersection. He said the roundabout seems to make businesses on Ruxton more accessible and visible from Manitou Avenue.

He reckons most of the complaints will dissipate when people start using the roundabout, which allows motorists to merge instead of stop.

Leslie said the project’s engineering firm, Nolte Associates, looked at various ways to improve traffic flow at the intersection. Computer modeling, he said, showed the roundabout would most efficiently handle traffic.

Michael Hussey, a landscape architect with Nolte, said there were challenges in constructing the roundabout. Designers had to shrink the circumference to 40 feet because of the tight space, which is ringed by buildings with a historic flavor. Also, they had to accommodate buses and semis hauling new train cars to the Cog Railway on Ruxton.

Since that precluded putting landscaping or a statue in the center of the roundabout, Nolte came up with a design in the center featuring two quarter moons facing each other in a night sky with stars between them. The stars are stainless steel; the moons are made of concrete and recycled yellow glass, and purplish glass renders the night sky.

Despite the suggestion from some wags that it looks like a homage to Wiccans, Hussey said the design doesn’t have any particular meaning.

The $60,000 roundabout is the sixth of a seven-phase project to improve Manitou Avenue for pedestrians, motorists and business owners, said Leslie.

Earlier phases saw Manitou Avenue narrowed from four to two lanes to slow speeders and new sidewalks and streetlights installed and utility lines buried.

The last phase of the project will happen in 2010, when a roundabout is added at the juncture of Manitou and Park avenues, which locals have long called Tubby’s Turnaround.

The project has been paid for with money from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority sales tax; federal grants; the state excise tax; and a three-tenths of a cent sales tax increase approved by Manitou voters in 2004. Using that future sales tax revenue as collateral, the city borrowed $1.8 million to use as matching funds for the federal grants.

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This photo released by ABC shows Ty Murray, right, and Chelsie Hightower performing on “Dancing with the Stars,” on Monday, May, 11, 2009 in Los Angeles. Photo by (AP Photo/ABC, Kelsey McNeal)

Kelsey McNeal