County Commissioners updated on transportation projects

The Boulder County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) held a virtual public briefing on July 18 to hear from county staff about how sales taxes will be spent on transportation projects. In 2022 voters approved Ballot Issue 1C to extend the 0.1% countywide sales tax in perpetuity. All three commissioners were in attendance at the hearing.

Kathleen Bracke, Deputy Director of Community Planning & Permitting, provided most of the presentation. Bracke identified staff priorities for spending. The focus is in five areas (with the percentage of the proposed spending from 2024 through 2039):

• Multimodal Safety and Resilience - 55%

• Regional Corridors - 10%

• Transit Services and Programs - 15%

• Regional Trails and Bikeways Projects - 15%

• Transportation Mobility Programs - 5%

The proposed list of projects for this time period, 2024 through 2039, includes:

• 15 miles of new paved shoulders

• 52 miles of regional trails and bikeways

• 35 miles of transit service

• 6 bridge replacements

• 4 new pedestrian underpasses

• 8 intersection safety improvements

Bracke highlighted the county's success in obtaining awards of grant money for the transportation projects. In the past year-and-a-half, the county spent $2.7 million from sales tax collections while being awarded $71.61 million in grant money.

Bracke said, "It's really important that we are able to leverage that Boulder County portion through grant opportunities, regional, state and federal, so that we can complete those projects, programs and services identified on the list."

One project on the list for Niwot is a pedestrian connection on the south side of Niwot Road from Cottonwood Square east to Sawtooth Lane. This project, currently in the design phase, was part of the 2012 Niwot Transportation and Connectivity Plan that was collaboratively developed by Niwot and Boulder County, but so far, is one of the few projects that has not been implemented. The project is also listed on the Boulder County 2022 update to the plan.

A project of significance to users of the Longmont-Boulder (LOBO) trail is an underpass at Four Mile Creek. According to the Boulder County website, "[This] segment will create an underpass below the BNSF railroad tracks connecting the Four-Mile Creek Bikeway to the Cottonwood Trail." This project is due to be constructed in the 2023-2025 timeframe.

In the area of other regional trail work, two major trails are in the works. The Boulder-to-Erie Regional Trail (BERT) would use the closed Union Pacific rail line that runs east of Boulder from the Sawhill Ponds area. The rail line is now owned by the Regional Transportation District (RTD). The other trail would go from Boulder to Lyons. Both of these regional trails are scheduled to be planned in the 2023-2025 timeframe.

Boulder County staff have uploaded a video recording of the presentation to their YouTube channel. It is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbA8eKHwHak.