El Paso County can’t seem to catch a break.

First, it was the drought. Then, it was the wind-whipped wildfires.

Now, the county is dealing with too much rain.

Yes, too much rain has caused flooding, washed out roads and delayed the start of the school year for Hanover School District 28.

While the rains are wreaking havoc, they didn’t even set any records.

The National Weather Service in Pueblo said there were eight consecutive days of precipitation from late July to the first four days of August.

The record is 11 consecutive days, set in 1957 and then again in 1980.

“Monday and Tuesday at the airport, officially, all we had was some sprinkles, so no accumulation of precipitation, just trace amounts,” meteorologist Michael Nosko said. And trace amounts don’t show up in official records.

“If I’m going to do a story about days with precipitation, I would be looking more at accumulating versus trace amounts because trace amounts don’t really add up to anything, don’t really provide any kind of benefit,” he said.

While rain may have fallen in other parts of Colorado Springs and El Paso County, the airport is the official measuring station.

“That’s where our forecast point is and where our observations are taken,” Nosko said. “Basically, all the climatology and stuff we do for Colorado Springs is going to be based off of the numbers that we obtain from the observation site we have located at the airport.”

The rains, however, have left their mark across the county.

A bridge that was closed because of debris and mud from last weekend’s rains forced Hanover School District 28 to delay the start of the new school year by a week.

District-wide registration that was scheduled for Friday has been moved to Aug. 16, and the first day of school was changed from Aug. 14 to Aug. 20, according to the school district southeast of Colorado Springs.

Hanover Road between Hammer and De Groot roads remains closed. Impacts to traffic have not been substantial with school out of session, said Dave Rose, a county spokesman. But once school starts, he said, the bridge becomes a critical route for buses and family vehicles, linking a nearby housing development to the school.

Still, it could be worse.

“We were finally able to pump out the water and remove enough sand to do a complete assessment, and it’s not as badly damaged as we’d feared,” Rose said.

Repairs are estimated at $70,000 to $90,000, much less than the original $250,000 estimate, he said.

The county expects the bridge to reopen by 5 p.m. Friday.

In Black Forest, a portion of Casey Lane was washed out Sunday, and the county may have to install a new culvert on Shoup Road because of fire-related flood issues.

Those two projects, plus the work to Hanover Bridge, will cost an estimated $1.2 million, said Andre Brackin, county engineer.

Brackin said it wasn’t a surprise that Casey Lane’s 84-inch diameter culvert failed and washed out the road. The culvert was ready to bust because of the changes in terrain after the Black Forest fire in June, the runoff and debris accumulation, he said.

“It became plugged with material and debris from storm run off and it overtopped as a result of the plugging,” Brackin said. “When we discovered it, we saw that the pipe itself had started to fail, weeks ago, in one of many smaller storms, when we’ve gone around checking.”

The culverts in the Kettle Creek Basin are most concerning to him, especially along Shoup Road. Several hundred feet of roadway constantly overflow when heavy rains occur, near the flood plain, Brackin said.

“Potentially putting a new culvert in Shoup Road to give the water the capacity to flow under the road will be a very complex project because there’s all kinds of utilities we’d have to move, and we may need to do an on-site detour, making it costly and time-consuming,” Brackin said.

Brackin presented the projects Wednesday to the Regional Transportation Association Citizens’ Advisory Committee, which seemed receptive.

A private contractor, R.E. Monks Construction, could begin repairs on Casey Lane as soon as Thursday, he said. If the weather cooperates, that project could be completed by late next week, Brackin said.

“The contractor company is even looking at potentially donating materials that aren’t being used in Denver International Airport, to lower the cost of the repairs,” he said.

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Staff writer Debbie Kelley contributed to this report.

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Contact Daniel J. Chac? 476-1623.

Pedestrians race across Pikes Peak Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs to beat the rain Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2013. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)

CHRISTIAN MURDOCK