Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily archive
Avon has been trying to make U.S. Highway 6 safer for pedestrians for over a decade. The culmination of this work — a project that will include a traffic light at Stonebridge Drive and four lighted pedestrian crossings, set to begin construction in June — has been injured by the state legislature’s cuts to transportation funding.
Eva Wilson, Avon’s engineering director, presented on the changes to the project’s budget to the Town Council Tuesday.
History of Avon’s pedestrian safety improvements project
Highway 6 has long been unsafe for pedestrians. Several pedestrians and cyclists have died while traversing Highway 6, including a pedestrian who was killed in a hit-and-run while walking along the road between River Oaks Apartments and the EagleVail Shop & Hop last March.
Avon’s original pedestrian safety solution was to put in a roundabout at the intersection of Stonebridge Drive and Highway 6 to slow vehicle speeds, but the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) revoked its approval of the roundabout as the town was at about 90% design in spring 2021.
While the obvious solution might be to lower and enforce speed limits along Highway 6, CDOT policy requires that speed on the road be set by average driver pace, not the other way around.
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The town has conducted speed studies that show the average speed on Avon’s section of Highway 6 is 47 miles per hour.
In August 2024, the Town Council approved a new project design that would include a stoplight at Stonebridge Drive, four lighted pedestrian crossings and landscaped medians along the two-mile stretch of Highway 6 from Post Boulevard to West Beaver Creek Boulevard.
The crossings will be placed by the four high traffic Core Transit bus stops at River Edge Apartments, Eagle Bend Apartments, Stonebridge Drive, and Mountain Stream Condos. About one-and-a-half of these crossings are actually within the town of Avon, while the rest are in unincorporated Eagle County.
What changed with the project’s funding?
Avon’s engineers estimated the total project cost to be $6 million. Avon was set to advertise for a contractor for the project this month, with construction to begin in June after CDOT approved a $2 million grant in February.
But Wilson learned on Thursday, April 17 that the town would not receive the full amount of anticipated funding.
“Eva was kind of thrown a curveball,” said Tamra Nottingham Underwood, Avon’s mayor.
The state legislature has been working to cut $1.2 billion from its budget for the next fiscal year. On Monday, the finalized budget was approved, including over $71 million in cuts to CDOT’s Multimodal Transportation and Mitigation Options Fund. Any money from the fund that was not already “obligated” was recalled, Wilson said. As a result, Avon’s project will receive $400,000 less from the state than anticipated.
Despite the cuts, the project will move forward as planned. In applying for $2 million grant, Wilson said, she made a conservative estimate of how much funding the project might need. The project’s actual total is expected to come in closer to $5.6 million, with design costs around $1 million and construction estimated at $4.6 million.
The project will still receive a total of $4.6 million in funding from the state, spread over three grants. Eagle County, the town of Avon and an additional local match of $500,000 will account for another $1 million in funds, giving the project a budget of $5.6 million.
Wilson said she is not concerned that the town is at risk of further loss now that the state legislature has approved the budget. It is, however, possible that the contractors’ rates for construction will come in higher than anticipated by the town engineers, which would push the project overbudget.
The project is already fully designed and the town will advertise for a contractor as soon as it receives approval from CDOT to take this next step. Avon still aims to approve a June start to construction, with work to conclude with landscaping in June 2026.
Following council approval Tuesday, Avon will work with CDOT on an updated Intergovernmental Agreement for the February grant with a range of $1.5 to $2 million. As mayor, Underwood will be able to sign the grant as it comes in.
