The Boulder County commissioners, at a Tuesday work session, supported a plan to continue working on the design of two large regional trail projects, even as the county is still figuring out how to pay to build them.<\/p>\n
One project is the\u00a0North Foothills Bikeway<\/a>, which would add a separated bikeway along a dangerous section of U.S. 36\/North Foothills Highway between Boulder and Lyons. The 11-mile corridor currently has the highest number of cyclist crashes in unincorporated Boulder County.<\/p>\n The other project is the Boulder to Erie Regional Trail<\/a>, dubbed BERT<\/a>. The trail would be about 8.5 miles long, beginning at 61st Street in Boulder and ending at County Line Road in Erie. The plan is to convert a portion of the former Union Pacific rail corridor, now owned by RTD, into an accessible trail. The recommended trail alignment would cross the rail bed as needed and lie just off the railroad tracks.<\/p>\n The county has used revenue from its 2022 Transportation Sales Tax to pay for engineering, environmental review, public engagement, agency coordination and permitting activities for both projects.<\/p>\n But with project costs continuing to increase, current estimates show that more than $120 million in additional funding will be needed to complete design and construction of the two regional trails. County staff members said a combination of federal, state, regional, local and partner funding will be needed.<\/p>\n The county\u2019s strategy, Strategic Projects Manager Stacey Proctor said, is \u201clet\u2019s design it and advance it as much as we can so we\u2019re ready to go when we get the money.\u201d<\/p>\n The commissioners on Tuesday agreed they want to continue moving the projects forward but won\u2019t make formal funding decisions, including how to allocate the transportation tax revenue, until the fall as part of the budget process.<\/p>\n The 2027 amount requested to keep the North Foothills Bikeway on track for construction in 2029 is $2.5 million.<\/p>\n This year, the project team plans to complete the preliminary design for the first segment, from Broadway to Neva Road, and begin preliminary design of the second segment, from Neva Road to Lefthand Canyon Drive, with a focus on the Lefthand Canyon Drive crossing.<\/p>\n