Building a better byway

By DAN WEST

Dan.West@gjsentinel.com

Mesa County has been awarded just under $1.9 million from the Colorado Department of Transportation in grant funding to improve safety along a key section of the Fruit and Wine Byway in Palisade.

On Thursday, CDOT announced a total of $42 million in grants to 37 entities across the state as part of its Transportation Alternatives Program, which funds projects that expand travel options, enhance safety for vulnerable users, improves the local economy and protects the environment.

“These grants will help make dozens of Colorado communities more vibrant by making it easier to get around,” CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said in a statement. “By offering more choices and options, and making sure those options are high-quality, we are making important improvements to these spaces.”

One of the projects funded was improvements to 38 Road south of Highway 6 in Palisade. Laura Page, engineering division director for Mesa County, said the project will widen a roughly 2,000-foot section of the road to provide an attached sidewalk for bikes and pedestrians. The sidewalk would connect to the existing pedestrian walkway that connects up to East Orchard Mesa. “The road right now is just a narrow two lane road with guardrail on one side and no room at all for any pedestrians or bicyclists,” Page said. “Since that road is part of the Palisade Fruit and Wine Byway there is quite a bit of bicycle traffic up there.”

The county was seeking around $3 million for the project with around $700,000 in local matching funds. Page said the county wants to construct two pedestrian bridges across two sections of canal in that area, but may not have the funding to include them at this time.

“It’s not going to be able to do everything we were hoping to do,” Page said. “So, we’ll spread it as far as we can and then hopefully be able to come up with more local funds to construct all of it.”

The project will include a retaining wall on the west side of the road to allow the addition of the bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, Page said. Design work could begin later this year with construction coming in 2024 or 2025.

OTHER PROJECTS

In addition to the Mesa County project, Grand Junction also received around $2.3 million from the TAP grants for additional improvements to North Avenue.

The grant will allow the city to build more than a mile of additional detached sidewalk on North Ave. between 12th Street and 23rd Street. These grant funds combined with other previously awarded Transit and Multimodal Options Fund grants for North Avenue brings the total to $4,950,000.

The city said that the grant funds will provide lower stress paths for pedestrians and cyclists along the north side of North Ave. between 29 Road and I-70B and on the south side between 29 1/2 and I-70B.

The project will connect with previously funded segments on the north side between 28 1/2 Road and 29 Road and on the south side between 29 Road and 29 1/2 Road, according to a statement from the city.

Delta County also received $550,000 in TAP funding to build trail and construct other improvements between downtown Hotchkiss, North Fork High School and Crossroads Park.

The Eagle Valley Trail was awarded $2 million to construct one of the last segments of the trail, which connects Vail and Glenwood Springs.

A bicyclist rides the East Orchard Mesa Loop while passing cars on 38 Road in Palisade on July 22. Limited sidewalks and biking lanes has forced bicyclists to share the two-lane road with motorized vehicles.

Photos by LARRY ROBINSON / The Daily Sentinel

Bicyclists hug the guardrail along 38 Road while passing cars in Palisade on July 22. Up until this point, bicyclists have had to share the road with motorized vehicles because of a lack of biking lanes and sidewalks for safety.