Federal funding for roads and bridges coming to Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration announced that it has released $787.8 million to Colorado for 2023.
Officials say the funds will come directly to Colorado to rebuild roads and bridges to reflect our state's particular needs and make the transportation system more efficient
This money comes from the bipartisan infrastructure law. It's designed to invest in critical infrastructure across the state. Including roads, bridges, and tunnels, carbon emission reduction, and safety improvements.
Each regional jurisdiction in the state will compete and pitch its specific needs to see how much state funding it can get.
In Colorado Springs, city leaders are prioritizing making Woodmen Road safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. They hope to get the green light from the state to use federal funding to make this happen.
"For the city of Colorado Springs we're in collaboration with El Paso County to work to apply those funds towards Woodman Road," Deputy Public Works Director Gayle Sturdivant said. "In particular in between Powers and U.S. 24.
The project would widen the road and improve intersection safety.
"Adding sidewalks, a multi-use path, increasing the capacity so there's three lanes in each direction, and improving turn lanes at the intersections," Sturdivant said. "Improving the accesses as developments come along there."
The city told KRDO it prioritizes its needs based on road or bridge conditions, traffic volumes, and safety data. It then applies those funds based on the areas that are most in need first.
Wednesday, $750,000 was granted to the City of Colorado Springs under a set of bridge investment grants. This will be used for a planning and environmental linkages study for two bridges on Fillmore Street over Monument Creek, Pikes Peak Greenway Trail, and Union Pacific Railroad.
"The city is very aggressive in pursuing those federal grant opportunities that we compete for at a national level," Sturdivant said. "That's really our only way to get additional funding to come into our region to help address our infrastructure needs."
One recent example of success is the Platte Avenue Bridge over Sand Creek, which was just completed. It was a $14 million project, most of which came from federal sources.
