Vote tonight could shift $2.2M toward Highway 34 traffic study

LASALLE — The North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization is scheduled to vote Thursday night whether to approve spending $2.2 million for a study that addresses mounting traffic congestion on U.S. Highway 34 from Loveland to Greeley.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m., April 7, at the LaSalle Town Hall, 128 N. 2nd St.

U.S. Highway 34 is facing development and traffic pressures that are expected to grow in the future. Several localized studies are in place along U.S. 34 in Loveland and Greeley but there is no study that looks at the corridor as a whole.

The Planning and Environmental Linkage study would standardize data, growth estimates and improvement recommendations throughout the area.

The NFRMPO’s planning council administers the region’s federally mandated transportation and air-quality planning processes, and is made up of representatives from the area’s counties and municipal governments.

The Colorado Department of Transportation is asking the organization’s planning council permission to shift funds that come available in 2019 earmarked for Interstate 25 to the U.S.-34 PEL study.

The North Front Range 2040 Transportation Plan has identified I‐25 as the highest priority corridor. However, emerging federal and private funding, coupled with the large price tag for I‐25, means that the estimated $2.2 million Regional Priority Program available in 2019 could move to another corridor without negative impacts.

The U.S. 34 Coalition is recommending the council concur with CDOT’s request to shift $2.2 million of the fund from I‐25 to U.S. 34 to initiate the study. The coalition was formed last year and includes officials from Weld and Larimer counties and the cities of Greeley, Loveland, Windsor, Evans, Garden City, Johnstown, Milliken and Kersey.

Jared Fiel, communications manager for CDOT in the region, previously told BizWest that after funding is secured it will take four to six months to find the contractor and another 18 months to conduct the study.

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