The other 10 miles into Glenwood would add to that.

The costs make it impractical to bring the road up to highway standards, county officials said.

Go to the Vail Daily to see the entire article and a map of the pass.

Foaring Fork Transportation Authority has unveiled this design for its 14 new bus stations. RFTA rendering.

The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports that the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority unveiled the general design of bus stations for 14 high-visibility stops along the Roaring Fork Valley’s spine on Tuesday.

RFTA will build the new stations as part of its $50 million expansion of the bus system that will be undertaken over the next three years. RFTA and its consultants will try to sell details of its plan to the public in a series of meetings starting in Glenwood Springs Feb. 16. Two meetings will be held in Aspen Feb. 17.

Go to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent to see the entire article.

More specifically, the one traffic signal just after the right-hand turn from Sixth Street onto the Grand Avenue Bridge. The past configuration had a single traffic turn lane where motorists did not have to stop before turning onto the bridge.

However, the new configuration includes a red-arrow traffic light that requires traffic to stop at the turn. It’s that one aspect that is confusing some motorists, and has caused a few accidents.

Go to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent to see the entire article.

According to a press release from project spokesman Tom Newland, the project, which involves widening of the exit ramps to two lanes and the placement of a new dual right-turn lanes onto the Grand Avenue Bridge at Sixth Street, will be completed ahead of schedule.

Go to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent to see the entire item.

RFTA will get hit hardest by falling sales tax collections. Fares collections will also drop because of sagging ridership, according to the draft budget presented to the board of directors Thursday by Finance Director John Tangen and Chief Executive Officer Dan Blankenship.

“It’s been a difficult year because we had to ask everyone in the organization to make some sacrifices,” Blankenship said.

Go to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent for the entire article.

This funding is in addition to the $13.5 million for the same project announced in May. The airport is currently in the second year of a three-year project that will upgrade the runway safety area to better accommodate jet aircraft.

Some of the improvements include expanding the safety area around the runway from 300 feet to 500 feet, new aircraft instrument approaches from the east and west and reducing the slope of the runway by lowering the east end approximately seven feet and raising the west end approximately 14 feet. This will reduce the slope to less that 1 percent across the entire 7,000 foot runway. This year’s work includes moving an estimated 1.8 million cubic yards of dirt and gravel into to the new safety area, and at some locations constructing embankments more than 60 feet high.

Read the entire article at the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.

The project, to begin Monday, Sept. 14, will include the installation of about 15,869 linear feet of 8-foot-high fence on the west side of the highway, between mile markers 7 and 11, in the Aspen Glen area between Carbondale and Glenwood in Garfield County. It will also complete the fencing — about a mile’s worth — on the east side of the highway along this stretch.

The project will also involve construction of six wildlife escape ramps on the west side and two on the east side. The escape ramps provide deer and elk that are trapped within the wildlife-fenced highway right of way with a better means to cross back over the fencing to escape the highway and vehicles. The earthen ramps are 6 feet high and constructed into a cut-out in the fence, on the highway side. Animals can run up the one-way ramp and jump back down to safety.

Read the entire article at the Aspen Times.

While work is beginning, there won’t be traffic impacts until after Labor Day. The contractor will try to avoid work during rush hour but otherwise motorists may encounter single-lane closures through Nov. 24.

The project will repair and resurface the CO 82 Grand Avenue overpass over I-70 and the Colorado River, widen the exit and entrance ramps bring heavy commuting traffic in from and back to West Glenwood and add capacity to the Sixth Street-Grand Avenue intersection that leads to the bridge, and where much of the I-70 traffic is heading.

View Glenwood Springs I-70 work in a larger map
Click on the blue balloons to get descriptions of the work.

Scott Contracting of Henderson will do the work.

Here’s how it will help commuting traffic from the west, the dominant direction:

The westbound I-70 exit dumps traffic into a short stub of Laurel Street, a block west of the Grand Avenue bridge, necessitating a left turn and two rights involving U.S. 6 for traffic to get over the rive and into downtown Glenwood. Traffic often backs up because of all the movements required.

The project will give morning westbounders a two-lane exit off I-70 to add capacity. Then from Sixth Avenue, which is also U.S. 6, Scott will expand the right turn to two lanes and put up a new signal, again increasing the carrying capacity of the turn.

On the evening return commute, the project will make the entrance to westbound I-70 a two-lane ramp.

Finally, conduit and fiber optic cable will be installed to connect the traffic signals along the corridor so they can be timed to move traffic more efficiently.

The bridge, built in 1953 and widened in 1969, is in good structural condition but is considered functionally obsolete because its narrow width restricts traffic capacity. It is 677 feet long, but only 37.5 feet wide, leaving only nine feet for each lane width. The optimum lane width is 12 feet.

This project will repair steel bridge rail, curb and curb rail, and portions of the concrete deck where potholes are forming, replace the bridge’s expansion joints, then repave the entire length with asphalt.

The total cost including design and planning is just over $2.5 million, with that amount coming from ARRA stimulus funds and $162,000 from federal Congestion Relief Funds.

While completion is scheduled for Nov. 24, the contract includes an incentive for early completion of $2,150 per day up to $114,000, to help reduce traffic impacts.