Idaho Springs receives $2.4 million grant toward transportation hub

BY DEBORAH SWEARINGEN SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Idaho Springs has received a $2.4 million federal grant that will be used for planning and designing a downtown transportation and mobility hub meant to improve safety and accessibility and address traffic impacts in the city.

“It’s the best news we ever could have hoped for,” Idaho Springs Mayor Chuck Harmon said.

Among other things, the project includes a roundabout at Exit 240 of Interstate 70, a multilevel parkings structure, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, including a connection to the Clear Creek Greenway.

It will also include Idaho Springs’ Miner Street redevelopment project, formally set forth in late 2021 when the city approved a downtown plan to guide improvements for the next 15 to 20 years. The plan is also heavily influenced by takeaways from the Miner Street Marketplace, a pedestrian mall enacted during the pandemic to support economic recovery in the city.

While officials say the project is vital for Idaho Springs, it will impact much of the state, given Idaho Springs’ location along Interstate

70, a major thoroughfare.

“This will be a really important amenity for the citizens of Colorado,” Harmon said. “This is actually a good way to lessen the emissions from I-70 since we’re going to promote electric-vehicle charging and public transportation.”

The grant funding is available through the Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American

Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program, which invests in road, rail, transit and port projects across the country, according to a news release.

The November 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law increased funding for these grants.

Earlier this year, Rep. Joe Neguse wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg in support of the project and the city’s grant pursuit.

“This project would also address historic impacts related to the construction of Interstate 70 in the city,” Neguse wrote in the letter. “The new roundabout will ease driver deceleration as they exit the high-speed interstate and enter the low-speed residential and commercial areas of downtown Idaho Springs as well as improving access to the city’s historic commercial district.”

Harmon said the grant would have been far less likely without support from the Colorado Department of Transportation and backing from officials such as Neguse, Gov. Jared Polis, and Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper.

The support is overwhelming, Harmon said.

“My hat’s off to staff in Idaho

Springs. They really worked hard,” he added.

Idaho Springs City Administrator Andrew Marsh previously said he expected the project to cost around $40 million with the transportation upgrades and water and sewer work included in that estimate.

This RAISE grant will help offset some of that cost, and the city has applied for a separate RAISE grant to assist with the construction costs, Harmon noted. It hopes to begin construction in about two years.

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