Diagonal Bikeway Project is Rolling Along

The Colorado 119 (Diagonal Highway) Bikeway Project is making progress in obtaining funding, with another round due to be considered in the near future.

The project is to build an off-street, multi-use hard-surfaced bikeway from Boulder to Longmont on the median between the two directions of Diagonal Highway motor vehicle traffic. The design involves a wide concrete path to comfortably accommodate both cyclists and pedestrians with minimized conflict with motorists through underpasses at the busiest intersections.

The Diagonal travel corridor is the second most-used in Boulder County. It is also ranked second in unincorporated Boulder County for severe bicycle and pedestrian crashes. A community survey during the 2019 revision of the County's Transportation Master Plan found that hard-surface bikeways that are physically separated from motor vehicles are the most popular improvement desired by cyclists.

Most cyclists are not comfortable riding on the shoulder of the Diagonal. The Longmont-Boulder (LoBo) bike path is not a hard-surface, and so cannot be maintained for use year-round.

For more information, see the Courier article published June 29, 2022 and Boulder County's website:

https://bouldercounty.gov/transportation/plans-and-projects/highway-119-bikeway-project/

In 2019, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) funded the first design study for the bikeway project. The project is being developed in the context of CDOT's larger project, the CO 119 Safety & Mobility Improvement Project. The bikeway is a project of Boulder County's Transportation Planning Division. Consequently, Boulder County must find the funding to design and construct the bikeway.

The funding process is complex because there are many project partners and potential funding sources. The bikeway design is divided into segments, and funding requests can address one or more segments.

One of the funding sources for the project is the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). DRCOG is the Denver region's metropolitan planning organization. It distributes federal funds for transportation through the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Municipalities and counties submit requests for funding and DRCOG decides which to fund.

In the first call for funding, Boulder County submitted a request to construct the section of the bikeway from Jay Road to CO-52 (Highway 52), but only the segment between Jay Road and 63rd Street was funded.

The second call for funding is now in the works. Boulder County has requested funding to construct the bikeway segment that was left unfunded in the first call, namely from 63rd to CO-52, and also included the segment from CO-52 to Niwot Road.

The next step for this funding request takes place on Wednesday, July 27, at a meeting of technical advisors to the members of DRCOG representing Boulder County and its municipalities who will recommend which projects to fund. All of the Boulder County region's proposals have been ranked, including this bikeway funding request. The third call for requests will begin next month and will also be discussed at the Wednesday meeting.

The Diagonal Highway Project, including intersection improvements, Bus Rapid Transit and the Bikeway, is 90% funded. The remaining 10% has recently been requested from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program.