The next big road project in Summit County will be nowhere near I-70.
CDOT today met with county commissioners to reveal the latest on a Highway 9 realignment project at the southern end of Green Mountain Reservoir.
The bulk of this project moves one mile of Highway 9 closer to the reservoir and away from a “shale bluff,” where volatile rock has a bad habit of breaking free and crashing to the road.
This past summer a rockslide there closed the highway for hours, forcing vehicles to detour through the town of Heeney.
“We are going to look at crash reduction (and) bicycle safety improvements when we relocate the road,” CDOT engineers said. “We are also doing some scaling and rockfall improvements in the area we call the ‘big cut’ that is really steep on both sides.”
This project also includes 7 miles of new pavement running the entire length of the reservoir, from mile marker 119 to 126, although CDOT officials believe they can find enough money for another 6 miles of pavement stretching south to the intersection of Ute Pass Road.
“We definitely have money for the (7 miles), but we are designing it for longer than that to see if we can set ourselves up for success,” road officials said.
Work there begins in 2029.
Good start, but…
County commissioners appreciate CDOT’s Green Mountain project, but with an asterisk: They believe it does not address serious safety issues on Highway 9 closer to Silverthorne and Summit’s fastest-growing town.
“I understand public safety is not your jurisdiction … but there are places on this stretch of road that could be made safer with engineering choices,” commissioner Tamara Pogue said. “Places where perhaps in the past it was safe to have passing lanes where it is not now. All we are asking is take a look and see if there is anything else we can jointly work on.”
Pogue read a letter from a concerned resident in north Silverthorne, sharing the woman’s experience of a harrowing close call with a semi-truck.
Traffic through north Silverthorne to the county line has been growing in recent years with more commuters and residents. Grand County last year suffered a record number of fatalities on larger highways, including a summer crash that killed a family of five between Kremmling and Heeney.
“Given the increased traffic … many residents are feeling their commuter drive is not safe, and that is a problem,” Pogue said.
CDOT promised to consider this request.