As the Summit County government waits to hear about whether it will receive funding from a key grant that will determine the scope of future road projects, officials reviewed the county’s road condition ratings and financials regarding potential projects.

Interim county engineer Alice Gustafson told officials at an April 1 meeting that the $5.5 million the county poured into roadwork in 2024 resulted in a 9% increase in its overall condition index, which is essentially a grading system for roadways. 

The county’s road assessment, which is conducted by an independent contractor, showed that nearly 35% of county-maintained roads are in “excellent” condition, around 33% are in “good” condition, roughly 17% are in “average” condition, nearly 12% are in “fair” condition and around 3% are in “poor” condition.

“As you can see, the ‘average,’ ‘fair’ and ‘poor’ only accounts for about 30% of our roads, which is great, but those 30% of our roads are pretty low, so they’re dragging down our average,” Gustafson said.

She said county road and bridge employees determined, using figures from 2024, that around $6 million would be needed each year for the next four to five years to cover asphalt projects alone. She explained Summit deals with unique situations other rural areas don’t when it comes to maintaining roads.

“Because we’re almost a suburb of Denver, the demand for infrastructure is higher here,” she said. “We have more urban-level infrastructure, but we don’t have the same level of sales tax and other revenues to support that.”

Officials discussed how some road projects were in the ballpark of $1 million, especially a $1.8 million project done on Tiger Road in 2024. Commissioner Nina Waters said she did some research ahead of the presentation and learned that the rate of “a million dollars a mile” to do significant work on major roads has become the norm. 

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“We keep getting asked by folks why the increase in property taxes has not alleviated the challenges like these costs, and growth under a TABOR environment simply does not keep up with them. I still would appreciate hearing from any member of the public that has a suggestion on what services they don’t want,” Commissioner Tamara Pogue said. 

Given the fiscal position the county is in, commissioners discussed plans for road construction across the county as they await a final decision on whether they will get a U.S. Department of Transportation grant to help repair Swan Mountain Road.

Officials discussed how the grant, which is called Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, has already been slashed at the federal level from $1.6 billon to $1.2 billion. Officials shared concerns that the cut to the grant program leaves only $75 million available for rural communities across the nation. They shared concerns that this may decrease the likelihood of them getting the grant. If they do receive the grant, officials said it likely wouldn’t be the full amount they are accustomed to receiving.

The U.S. Department of Transportation grant will determine the timing and type of work done on Swan Mountain Road. It will also ultimately determine what road construction will look like this year and in future years in Summit County.

Based on these concerns, the county outlined two options, one if they get the grant and another if they don’t receive the federal funds.

If the grant is acquired, the county would plan to reconstruct the entirety of Swan Mountain Road between 2026 and 2027 while spending 2025 working on projects for Baldy Road, Highwood Terrace, Forest Drive, Straight Creek, Snowberry Way, Lone Wolf Court and potentially roads near Copper Mountain.

If the county doesn’t get the grant, it is leaning toward working on a stretch of Swan Mountain from just below Sapphire Point to the Summit Cove bridge this summer, while also working on projects for Highwood Terrace, Forest Drive and Straight Creek.