The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that it will award a $15.2 million grant to Gunnison County to make safety improvements to the busy highway between Gunnison and Crested Butte.
Highway 135 has seen its daily traffic volumes nearly double over the last 30 years to nearly 6,000 vehicles a day at a time when rising housing costs have pushed the Crested Butte workforce to Gunnison and beyond. Traffic counts are even higher during the peak summer season, according to data from the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The highway is dangerous, too. Three people died and 55 were severely injured in 264 crashes between 2018 and 2022, according to CDOT data.
Rather than expand the highway to accommodate more cars, however, local officials are boosting public transportation service and will use the federal grant to help fund safety improvements — many of which are aimed at pedestrians and transit users.
“I think that people in our community would much rather see new traffic calming and safety installations … before we would want to contemplate or need a widening of the highway,” Gunnison County Commissioner Jonathon Houck said in an interview.
Besides, he said, the Gunnison Valley’s strong ranching community — and the land those ranchers own that abuts the highway — wouldn’t mesh with a wider, faster road. Cattle drives still routinely happen on the highway, he said.
“Getting beyond two lanes on 135 would really seriously impact the character of the Gunnison Valley,” Houck said.
Local governments recently commissioned a detailed look at the highway that recommended $19 million in safety-focused changes to the road. Those include new on-highway roundabouts, rumble strips, the construction of missing sidewalks near bus stops in Gunnison, and curb extensions at the busy intersection of Highway 135 and U.S. 50 in downtown Gunnison.
Also planned is a $3 million pedestrian tunnel near a bus stop just south of Crested Butte that would allow the future residents of a proposed 252-unit affordable workforce housing development to safely cross the highway.
Separately, the county is also planning a new multimodal trail on a 7.5-mile stretch along Highway 135 between Crested Butte and a housing development to the south.
The federal government announced 10 other safety-focused grants to other Colorado communities this week as well, including $6.7 million for infrastructure changes in downtown Denver.
