The Biden-Harris Administration awarded nearly $50 million in grant funds to the city of Glenwood Springs for the South Bridge project, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced on Tuesday. 

The South Bridge project would construct a bridge across the Roaring Fork River, providing access between Colorado Highway 82 and neighborhoods east of Airport Road, according to the city of Glenwood. The project will also pave a second evacuation route connecting the residents of the South Corridor with Highway 82. 

The $49.68 million grant was one of 18 projects funded by the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program. The purpose of the program is to help communities around the United States complete transportation projects that will increase mobility, improve safety, and generate regional economic growth in rural areas, as rural roads face a disproportionately-high rate of fatalities and many are in poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

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The city of Glenwood was one of 174 applicants competing for the $645 million in available funding from the program this year, which is barely in its second year. Total, the program is anticipated to invest a total of $2 billion through 2026. 

“It is fantastic to see Colorado competing so well for significant new federal infrastructure funding,” Governor Jared Polis said in a Thursday news release from the city. “South Bridge is an example of an important project that could have been delayed for many more years without this funding — with it, Glenwood Springs will grow in a safer and more resilient way. We thank our federal and local partners for making it a priority to bring these dollars to Colorado.” 

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In addition to significantly reducing commuting distances, the bridge will also provide “critical egress and escape” for approximately 4,000 residents, who previously only had one viable escape route, in the event of a wildfire. 

South Bridge has been in the works for over 20 years, according to the city.  

“When Coal Seam Fire happened in 2002 is when we first started actively having conversations about the project,” Mayor Ingrid Wussow said.

Because the project is only at 90% engineering, meaning they are at the 90% mark of finalizing plans, Wussow said the city does not yet have a definitive number on how much the overall project will cost. 

“With the current environment we’re in with cost escalations and construction bidding, we don’t really have a great answer to that (costs) at this moment,” Public Works Director Matthew Langhorst said. Though not a definite number, he said the project could be in the range of $75 million. 

“This is the honeymoon phase of the grant, to be honest,” Wussow said. “This is like, ‘We got the money. Now what?'” 

Wussow said the city and other partners have a 20% match, which for a $50 million grant means they would be responsible for matching approximately $10 million, adding up to a total of almost $60 million in funding following this grant. 

“If the project goes up or the project comes down, the city, as kind of the fiduciary for the grant, is going to be on the line for 20% of the cost,” Wussow said. 

This is the city’s second year applying for the grant. 

“We’ve been going to D.C. for years now with pretty much the same ask,” Wussow said. “Thirty applications came in last year for the Rural Surface Transportation Grant. Twelve of them were funded, and none of them were in Colorado … We need to talk about making sure that if there’s a fire, we can get people out of this corridor, and that on a daily basis, we can keep traffic running a little smoother.” 

City Manager Steve Boyd said the city learned a lot after their first process of applying for the grant, after which the city’s legal council was able to advise a more competitive application.  

“They actually encouraged us to reapply,” Wussow said. “That was a really good sign for us going into the grant cycle.” 

In terms of timeline, Langhorst said he thinks the grant will come with stipulations on when the South Bridge project should be completed.  

“I don’t even know how long it’s going to take us to implement the grant,” Langhorst said. “Some of the timeframes will be based around what the grant requires … To be determined, because we just found out seven days ago that we got $50 million, but we don’t know what the stipulations on the $50 million are.” 

Wussow said the city being awarded the grant will not impact their plans to potentially lease part of the airport to nonprofit group KGWS Airpark. Langhorst estimated that the airport would need to close for 12-18 months in order to complete the project. 

“He (legal counsel) has already been in conversation with the nonprofit group,” Wussow said. “They are all very openly and transparently having conversations about how to make both work.”