A long-envisioned roadway project to the south of Glenwood Springs that dates back to the 2002 Coal Seam Fire got a huge boost in December when a nearly $50 million federal grant was awarded to move things forward.
The South Bridge Project would connect South Glenwood near the municipal airport west of the Roaring Fork River to Colorado Highway 82 next to the Holy Cross Energy headquarters.
The project has been in discussions as a necessary evacuation route — and more generally as a traffic pressure relief valve — since the 12,000-acre wildfire that burned 29 homes in West Glenwood nearly forced the evacuation of the entire Four Mile corridor south of town when the fire threatened to jump the ridge over Red Mountain.
Soon after, then-Congressman and Glenwood Springs native Scott McInnis was instrumental in securing a $5 million federal earmark to study the South Bridge route.
But the project has been stalled for more than 20 years over jurisdictional wrangling, design logistics to preserve the airport, politics over growth, traffic and environmental concerns, and ever-escalating costs.
With a $100 million price tag to build the project, based on a design that grew out of an environmental analysis, including a rather expensive road underpass of the airport runway, the objective now is to try to whittle away at some of those costs.
The City of Glenwood Springs hired SGM Engineers to prepare a peer review study of the design plans and to offer cost-cutting suggestions.
“We’ve been able to recognize, at least on paper, a good chunk of savings somewhere in the $20 million range, and depending on how aggressive we can get, we can push that number a little bit higher,” City Engineer Ryan Gordon said.
Among the potential cost savings would be to change the bridge type and alignment and changes in the roadway design to skirt around the south end of the runway, instead of going underneath it.
That not only would trim project costs, but would also avoid a projected 12- to 18-month closure of the airport to build the underpass, which would have other economic impacts, Gordon said.
“We’re trying to see where we can get with these cost savings, with the understanding that we don’t want to start a brand new process and environmental document, and have to start from square one,” he said.
The $49.68 million grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation on Dec. 12, 2023 and is one of 18 projects funded nationally through the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program.
The grant, to be administered by the Colorado Department of Transportation, calls for construction to start by September 2026. It does not, however, have a deadline for lining up the rest of the funding.
Beyond the grant, the city has some matching funds set aside, plus some additional federal earmarks and a portion of the funding that was approved by Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) voters in 2018 as part of a new property tax to fund long-term transit needs.
The South Bridge design includes a tunnel under the new roadway for RFTA’s Rio Grande Trail, where it parallels Highway 82, so that a new at-grade intersection with the highway can be created. That intersection would also incorporate the Red Canyon Road access to the highway.
Still at 90% of design, there’s about six months to a year of work to get to final design and to secure the additional funding, Gordon said.
One entity that will still need to be approached about becoming a funding partner is Garfield County.
County commissioners have been generally supportive of the project as a way to give the estimated 4,000 residents living in South Glenwood and up the Four Mile Corridor toward Sunlight Mountain Resort a way to get to Highway 82 without having to travel back along Midland Avenue into town.
However, high costs, the need for right-of-way procurement from private property owners and the route’s potential to fuel new development has been a sticking point.
The city plans traffic-calming features along the route, like additional roundabouts and lower speed limits, to serve as a disincentive for it to become a bypass of Highway 82/Grand Avenue through Glenwood Springs.
“We will still have local access to all of those neighborhoods, and it goes right by Sopris Elementary School, where there are lots of families and kids,” Gordon said. “So it’s really considered as a local collector road and not a high-speed bypass.”
The route and the bridge itself will also have pedestrian and bike features, as well as the opportunity for the city’s Ride Glenwood bus service to extend to the area, he said.
City staff and other project officials are updating Glenwood City Council on new developments twice a month, with specific decision points expected by late February or early March, Gordon said.
