County leaders are providing money to fund a US Highway 50 study

Colorado lawmakers struck down a bill that would help fund a study on Highway 50 from the Kansas border to Chaffee County, but a group of community leaders are coming together to pay for the study anyway.

The study is meant to show how to improve safety on the highway and the economic impact those changes would have.

Pueblo County Commissioner Liane “Buffie” McFadyen said this study is important for the future of Highway 50.

“We learned diligently that when you don’t improve your safety or efficiency on I-70, it adds up to an $800 million loss in revenue. We need to take the same approach. We need to figure out, if we don’t improve the efficiency on U.S. Highway 50, how much are we losing by not making those changes?” she said.

The study will cost $25,000 and that will be split among the counties Highway 50 runs across, along with CDOT.

The study is expected to be done by Dec. 1.