Crane signals milestone in Pioneers Museum project, Food Truck Tuesday ends this week

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A 250,000-pound crane reaches 190 feet into the sky over the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum in downtown Colorado Springs. The crane will be on site Aug. 14-16, 2023, as part of a capital project upgrading the building's heating and air system. (Photo courtesy of Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum)

A crane stretching nearly 200 feet into the sky over Alamo Square Park downtown signals a milestone in the eight-month-long project to upgrade the aging heating and air conditioning system inside the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

The 250,000-pound crane with a boom reaching 190 feet arrived Monday and will remain at the northeast corner of the park through Wednesday, museum officials said in a news release.

Operators with Saunders Norwood Construction are using the crane to remove the old decommissioned heating and air conditioning equipment inside the historic 120-year-old building that once served as the El Paso County courthouse, officials said.

Saunders Construction and developer Norwood Development Group formed the construction company in July 2021.

The crane will pull the old equipment from the museum's fourth floor through a hatch in the roof, where it will then be lowered onto trucks for recycling, officials said.

The work will impact certain museum operations. The last Food Truck Tuesday of the season is Tuesday at the museum's south end.

The museum began work on the $6.2 million capital project July 24. Crews will install a state-of-the-art HVAC system that will also improve exhibit space.

A dependable heating and air conditioning system is needed to adequately preserve fragile artifacts like documents and Native American baskets; extreme fluctuations in temperature can hurt them, museum officials previously said.

The building is closed to the public during construction, but officials opened a Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum annex across the lawn at Plaza of the Rockies to display new exhibits.

The annex is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 121 S. Tejon St., suite 100.

The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum housed inside the former El Paso County courthouse downtown will temporarily close beginning next month as officials start upgrading the building's aging heating and air conditioning system to expand and improve exhibit space.

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