Westerly Creek North Development

Weather permitting, regrading of the channel and other earth moving are expected to start in February.

The major paths, shown in white, are concrete; the main east-west path is 12 feet wide. Not shown on this map are 4-foot wide crusher fines paths that are single track “get-aways” from the main trail system. One is along the rubble edge in Uplands East. The other is on the east side of the creek.

Construction on the long awaited Westerly Creek North open space park is expected to begin in February. The city has been moving the project rapidly through the planning and approval processes in order to get the grading of the channel completed during Colorado’s dry season.

The project will be done in two phases: phase one includes the earthwork and the pedestrian bridge over the creek; phase two is the irrigation, trails and landscaping. It is hoped the park can be completed by the end of 2015, with trails ready for public use, but planted areas will be fenced off until the landscaping takes hold.

A large wetlands area at the confluence with Sand Creek was originally planned, but due to water rights issues there will instead be “side pocket wetlands” along the inside bends.

With the heavy floods that have occurred in the past few years, Westerly Creek visitors have become familiar with seeing the park become a roaring flood channel during 100-year floods. This stretch, like the rest of Westerly Creek, has a carefully calculated and designed slope to the stream and banks to best contain floodwater. The pedestrian bridge will function similar to the ones downstream; a 10-year flood will go under it and a 100-year flood will go over it.

Three land forms will be created in Uplands East with earth removed during the regrading of the creek. An estimated 118,000 cubic yards will be moved from the creek bed to form the mounds shown on the map.