The Glenwood Springs City Council voted 4-3 Thursday, Sept. 4 to move forward with the South Bridge project including a toll, a decision that could shape how the long-debated route functions as both an emergency evacuation outlet and a potential commuter bypass.

Councilors Sumner Schacter, Ray Schmahl, David Townsley and Steve Smith supported the motion to include tolling. Mayor Marco Dehm, Mayor Pro Tem Erin Zalinski and Councilor Mitchell Weimer opposed.

The vote followed nearly an hour of debate over whether tolling should be tied to the estimated $80-million project, which would connect Midland Avenue south of Glenwood Springs to Colorado Highway 82 near the airport.

City Manager Steve Boyd told council that the Federal Highway Administration requires Glenwood to choose one path: toll or no toll. A dual approach is no longer acceptable, and adding a toll could trigger additional federal reviews, potentially delaying approvals beyond September 2026, when federal funding must be obligated.

“Attaching a toll now could send this all the way up to the secretary’s desk for review,” Boyd said. “If the answer comes back no, we risk starting over and losing the grant.”

The city won a major federal grant by pitching South Bridge as a wildfire evacuation route, not a toll road or commuter bypass.

Several councilors said a toll was the only effective way to prevent the bridge from becoming a regional shortcut. 

“If this becomes nothing more than a bypass, then the only way of controlling it is through tolling,” Schmahl said.

Smith pointed to community feedback, noting that while residents were split on whether to support the bridge at all, nearly everyone agreed it should not be used as a highway. 

“When people heard about the toll, they saw it as a tangible tool to preserve their neighborhood’s quality of life,” he said.

Townsley added that tolling aligns with the city’s repeated assurances that South Bridge is about emergency access, not regional traffic. 

“This shows we are serious about keeping it a safety route,” he said.

Other council members argued that the tolling debate distracts from the project’s core purpose — saving lives during a wildfire evacuation.

Dehm, who advocated for the project in Washington, D.C., said the toll proposal came late and was never part of the federal grant application. 

“This bridge has always been about public safety,” he said. “Attaching a toll now only risks losing the money we fought for.”

Zalinski and Weimer echoed those concerns, emphasizing that emergency responders have long deemed the project essential. 

“We have more people living in harm’s way than when this was first discussed,” Weimer said. “It’s not about convenience. It’s about safety.”

City staff will now proceed with South Bridge design plans that include a toll. The Federal Highway Administration will determine whether that change is allowable within the existing grant. If federal officials reject tolling or fail to approve it before the 2026 deadline, the city could lose its funding and be forced back to the drawing board.

For now, the council remains divided between those who see tolling as a way to protect neighborhoods from cut-through traffic, and those who fear it could jeopardize the project altogether.