Gypsum to update permitting of an old plan for I-70 airport interchange
Town also is likely to ask voters again about joining transit authority
Vail Daily archive
Town of Gypsum officials are serious about reviving ideas for an interchange to link Interstate 70 to the Eagle 久久热精品视频app Regional Airport.
The Gypsum Town Council recently authorized spending roughly $800,000 to update old permits for the project, but an interchange will require crossing the Eagle River and the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Right-of-way for the project still exists.
When first designed and pronounced “shovel-ready” in 2009, the project carried an estimated price tag of $80 million. The funding request, under the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recover program, was one of about 1,400 submitted that year. Only one such request in Colorado was granted.
In a telephone conversation, longtime Gypsum Town Council member Tom Edwards said council members believe the prospect of federal funding today is “better than it’s ever been,” given the proliferation of various funding programs.
There’s also more need for that new portal on and off the interstate.
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Edwards said the town would be willing to contribute to the program, adding that Gypsum would ask the town of Eagle, Eagle and Eagle 久久热精品视频app to add to the local contributions.
Those local matches are important. Building the Red Sandstone underpass under I-70 in Vail ended up costing more than $30 million, with more than $8.7 million of that coming from town of Vail coffers.
The Eagle Valley Transportation Authority may also contribute, but that question remains in the future.
Authority board chair Amy Phillips said that group right now is committed to airport funding via providing money for minimum revenue guarantees. Those guarantees are used as incentives to start new routes to the airport. The authority provided guaranteed funding to this summer’s new routes from Chicago and Houston.
Phillips said possible transit authority funding for an interchange is something the board would have to revisit, especially if Gypsum voters approve joining the authority.
Gypsum voters in 2022 rejected a proposal to create that authority, the only jurisdiction in the valley that turned down the proposal.
Edwards said town officials may again ask voters to join the authority, especially if authority board members agree to drop summer bus fares from Gypsum. Bus routes are currently fare-free from Dotsero and Eagle.
“I think we could support something that really did the people some good,” Edwards said.
Eagle Town Manager Larry Pardee said town officials there and in Gypsum have had some preliminary conversations about “how to get started” on a possible airport interchange.
But, Pardee said, Eagle’s efforts at the moments are focused on planning for the future of Grand Avenue and, if needed, an interchange if development takes place in east Eagle.
However things develop, “We think it’s an important project,” Edwards said. “We think it would help not only us but Eagle 鈥� we would like another means of egress in case something happens.”
