The improvements to the roof at the new USOC building in downtown Colorado Springs are now complete, following last week's closure due to falling ice and snow from the slanted roof.

Last Monday, snow and ice fell from the roof of the building at 27 S. Tejon Street causing a hazard on the street and sidewalk. In fact, portions of Tejon and Colorado were closed for safety reasons.

Now, the city says it has a permanent fix to the problem.

"Crews initially though they'd do something temporary, but when they thought about what they were trying to do, they figured a permanent fix would be just as quick as temporary, so this is a permanent fix," said John Leavitt with the City of Colorado Springs.

According to city spokesperson John Leavitt, the original design of the roof had pieces of metal sticking up from the surface of the sloping portion of the roof. Those metal snow guards are called flanges. Apparently, there are not enough flanges on the roof. Crews installed more snow guards to prevent snow and ice from falling off the edge again.

"This metal roof is sloped as you know. These flanges stick up from sloping and grip the snow and allow it to melt naturally without sliding off," said Leavitt.

The additions will not cost the city a dime. It's considered just another part of the overall construction process.

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