A road that was heavily damaged by flooding in May within Cherry Creek State Park will reopen in late January, the state park announced on Friday.
Lakeview Road was forced to close in mid-May amid torrential downpours around the Denver area that resulted in flooding. Cherry Creek State Park recorded six inches of rainfall over a three-day period, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). The water carved out two big sinkholes, buckling and breaking the road apart.
“This is what we call a 100-year event, and when we have those, things just don’t handle that type of force Mother Nature puts on us,” Jason Trujillo, park manager of Cherry Creek State Park, said at the time.
CPW had not seen damage that bad since the early 1980s, according to Trujillo. In fact, the damaged road was just re-surfaced a few months prior to the flooding.
A new daily rainfall record was set at Denver International Airport reporting 2.92 inches, which broke the previous record of 1.55 inches set back in 2011.
On Friday, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky announced from the park that Lakeview Road would reopen on Jan. 26.
They added that new education programs are coming in 2024, which will cover topics such as boat safety, birding, hunting, archery and more.
In addition, the park will host a bald eagle festival on Feb. 10. No other details on this event were immediately available.
