Public Meeting Scheduled This Thursday for State Highway 9 Safety Improvements Project

GRAND COUNTY — On Thursday, April 19 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will be hosting a public meeting regarding the State Highway (SH) 9 safety improvements and wildlife mitigation project in Grand County.

The meeting will be held at the West Grand K-8 School in the Kathy Shiply Room. The address is 715 Kinsey Avenue in Kremmling. Members of the public and the media are invited to attend in order to learn more about the project. A formal presentation will take place from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Members of CDOT, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Grand County, and the Blue Valley Ranch (a private partner) will be present to answer questions about the project and solicit input from the public.

SH 9 is a major traffic route between Kremmling and Silverthorne in Summit and Grand counties. Although the highway runs through many other counties, the narrow stretch of highway between mile marker (MM) 126 and MM 137, near the Green Mountain Dam Road and Colorado River Crossing, has been the site of numerous accidents in the past few years between motorists and wildlife. In order to mitigate future accidents and save human and animal lives, CDOT is working with Grand County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and the Blue Valley Ranch to complete the design process of the project so when funding becomes available, the project can begin as soon as possible.

Safety improvements to be made to the stretch of roadway between MM 126 and MM 137 include widening and adding eight foot shoulders, improving roadway alignment to bring up to current design standards, straightening severe roadway curves, flattening steep hills with lower sight distance, making access/intersection improvements, and implementing wildlife mitigation strategies such as fencing and underpasses/overpasses to allow wildlife migration and to reduce wildlife/vehicle collisions along this section of highway.

Please visit the project website for the most current information about the State Highway 9 safety improvements project at www.coloradodot.info/projects/sh9grandcounty. To receive real-time updates about road conditions in your area, visit www.coloradodot.info and click on the green cell phone icon in the upper right hand corner of the page. Updates are also available via Twitter @coloradodot and be sure to “Like” us on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/coloradodot.