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Glenwood Canyon receiving millions for debris slide repairs

A Colorado Department of Transportation Hydrologist walks down the closed westbound lanes of Interstate 70 on Monday after a mudslide swept down the cliffs in Glenwood Canyon in the area of the Grizzly Creek burn scar on Sunday.
Chelsea Self / Post Independent

Colorado is receiving $10.4 million in federal dollars for extreme weather road repairs with Glenwood Canyon receiving the majority of funds to repair Interstate 70 after the 2021 debris slides, a news release states. 

“Our nation’s transportation infrastructure is facing more frequent and unpredictable damage from severe weather events,” said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack in the release from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration has created an Emergency Relief Program fund to reimburse the Colorado Department of Transportation and Federal Lands Management Agencies for road repairs damaged by severe weather events.



“These funds will help communities across our nation repair roads and bridges damaged by severe weather events, which are becoming increasingly common because of climate change,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the release.

The funding is part of an ongoing effort to help states repair and rebuild critical infrastructure that residents and businesses rely on following extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent, hard to predict and severe due to a changing climate, according to the release.



The funds provided to Colorado are part of an overall $513.2 million in Emergency Relief Program funding package to help 30 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico make repairs to roads and bridges damaged by storms, floods, wildfires and other events in recent years. 

“We must address the devastating impacts of climate change and work to build more sustainable transportation infrastructure to better withstand its impacts for years to come,” said Buttigieg.

Climate resiliency will be added to the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief program through a rulemaking process, which will also make it possible to use more relief funds toward building and improving resilient systems for future weather events, the release states.


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