La Quinta hosts open house ahead of Ironman 2019

The Ironman Triathlon event is just three months away, set to return to La Quinta on December 8th 2019. Since last year’s event caused a major traffic headache for residents living along the route, the city is taking a proactive approach for this year’s event.

The city and Ironman representatives hosted an open house meeting at the La Quinta Wellness Center Thursday night to showcase the new changes and to help residents plan ahead. This was one of three open house sessions planned. The next two will be hosted on October 23 at the La Quinta Museum and November 14 at the La Quinta Wellness Center. You can also view the updated course maps here.

“One of the challenges we saw last year was there was only one lane in and out of the city…that was Washington street,” said Jaime Torres, management analyst, City of La Quinta.

The city and ironman representatives say they’re taking a proactive approach this year by changing how cars will be regulated and changing the race route itself: “Probably the biggest change is moving the race off of Washington street over to Jefferson…so everyone will have access now to highway 111. They can get there they can go to those shopping centers. If they need to go other places they’ll be able to get over to Fred Waring,” said Alex Napier, Ironman Community Liaison.

At the open house sessions, staff members are showing residents the best detours to get in and out on the day of the race depending on where they live.

“We are so far ahead of where we were last year I think it’s going to make a big difference for the community and I hope everyone has a good race day,” said Napier.

KESQ