US 50 Safety/Operational Highway Improvements CDOT Project Description

Description: The US 50 SHIFT Project aims to enhance safety and operational efficiency along the 150-mile US 50 corridor between Pueblo, Colorado, and the Kansas state line. The $67.5 million initiative was awarded $40.5 million in federal funding to install 12 passing lanes across five priority segments of this critical freight corridor.

US 50 Safety/Operational Highway Improvements Report by CDOT

Project Description

Otero County and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), with the support of a dedicated consortium of Southeastern Colorado Counties, are pleased to submit this revised proposal for the US 50 Safety/Operational Highway Improvements for Freight and Travel Project (US 50 SHIFT, or the "Project") to the FY25/26 Multimodal Projects Discretionary Grants (MPDG) federal discretionary grant opportunity.

US 50 SHIFT will install twelve passing lanes along 150 miles of US 50 between the City of Pueblo, CO (Pueblo) and the Kansas state line. Designated by the state and federal governments as a key freight corridor, US 50 is heavily used by commercial trucks; critical to inter-regional, intra-state, and national freight movement; and plays a crucial role in enabling the economic vitality and resilience of Southeast Colorado.

Due to its strong cost-effectiveness and the broad spectrum of benefits it delivers to both the immediate communities living along this corridor, as well as the thousands of freighters and visitors who rely on US 50 for safe and reliable movement, this Project was Highly Recommended by the MPDG senior review team (SRT) in the FY23/24 cycle of MPDG and was presented to the Secretary for award consideration.

US 50 SHIFT is a top priority for the rural communities in Southeast Colorado. The critical safety improvements, infrastructure repair, and transportation network modernization detailed in this proposal are long overdue for this essential corridor. As the lead applicant, Otero County respectfully requests $40.5M in federal funding, matched with $13.5M in non-federal state funding and $13.5M in other federal funding, to complete this $67.5M Project.

Statement of Work with Technical & Engineering Aspects

The US 50 SHIFT Project consists of the installation of twelve individual passing lanes spread across five segments of the US 50 High Plains Freight Corridor between the urban center of Pueblo and the Kansas state line. Ten of the passing lanes are paired bidirectionally (eastbound/ westbound) along the same stretch of US 50; two are 'independent' in that passing lanes will be installed in only one direction.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recommends passing lanes three to ten miles apart to provide optimal operational benefits and the safest amount of passing opportunities for all travelers. The new passing lanes included in the US 50 SHIFT project will meet this AASHTO standard and improve travel reliability for personal vehicles, commuters, transit users, tourists, and commercial freight to safely pass, most notably heavy agricultural equipment, trailers, and tractors that frequent the Colorado plains.

US 50 between Pueblo and the Kansas state line is primarily classified as a 2-lane principal arterial, though it does expand to a four-lane principal arterial with depressed median as it approaches urban areas (such as Pueblo). The 150-mile US 50 corridor between Pueblo and the Kansas Border is broken into ten segments defined by the rural and regional communities through which it passes this INFRA/Rural application seeks funding for installation of passing lanes in the highest priority areas along the corridor within five of those segments to address current transportation challenges, as shown in Table 1.

Current Design Status

Project development progressed quickly through planning stages with meaningful public engagement and dedicated preliminary engineering efforts from CDOT's Region 2 project team. Currently, design has advanced to 20% at one passing lane site. Beginning with this site, the entire Project is ready to proceed immediately upon securing complete construction funding.

Transportation Challenges & How the Project will Address

Current transportation challenges include higher-speed tourists, commuters, and Single- Occupancy Vehicles (SOV's) facing severe traffic backups and delays when stuck behind slower- moving vehicles and trucks. These situations lead to attempts at unsafe passing where there are no designated passing areas, which results in a heightened level of accidents, including devastating fatal head-on collisions, as well as unregulated and unpredictable congestion as all vehicles brake behind the leading vehicle causing accordion delays that require four seconds of recovery for every one second of delay.

The posted speed limit varies from 55 to 65 miles an hour within these segments, but speeds are often much lower due to slow moving commercial or agricultural vehicles, limited passing opportunities, and excessive following or queuing. Without locations for truck traffic to safely pass, freight efficiency is also greatly reduced. These dangerous, unexpected disruptions to traffic patterns increase the risk of crash, injury, and death and, subsequently, further delays when the entire road has to be closed to safely allow EMS to respond due to the limited shoulder width restricting use. Ultimately, this Project will improve travel time reliability for both personal and commercial vehicles, and significantly improve safety metrics along the entire corridor, which recorded 21 fatal accidents just between 2018 and 2022.

Installing passing lanes in both directions in these priority areas within the US 50 High Plains Freight Corridor will improve efficiency, allowing for a faster rate of free flow traffic for both personal and commercial freight vehicles, particularly where high levels of following or queueing are indicative of the frequency of freight platooning. Allowing safe areas for passing, particularly in these areas where there is no median dividing direction traffic, will greatly reduce the likelihood of accidents and is consistent with CDOT's statewide initiative Vision Zero, a program which aims to eliminate deaths and serious injuries in the state's transportation systems by 2030.

Safer and more efficient travel along the US 50 High Plains Freight Corridor will allow for the rural highway corridor to remain both the key conduit for rural mobility, but also to continue as the vital backbone for economic activity and regional economic resiliency. The implementation of the US 50 SHIFT Project will result in the provision of a diversified basket of economic benefits for users of the US 50 corridor. Benefits will include significant reductions in the occurrence of accidents, injuries and fatalities, moderate travel times savings, and operating costs savings through a faster flow of traffic due to the introduction of passing lanes. A benefits-costs analysis (BCA) undertaken for the US 50 SHIFT Project shows that the delivery of this $67.5 million project will, over its first twenty years of operation, generate a benefit cost ratio (BCR) of 3.0:1 with a net present value of $114.2 million at a 3.1% discount rate.

History & Greater Context

The US 50 SHIFT project represents the latest project within a decades-long program of providing improvement to the highway corridor. In 2000, a corridor wide vision was developed in A Corridor Selection Study: A Plan for US 50. This study established core objectives for improving safety and mobility along US 50 as well as the identification of candidate projects which would deliver outcomes consistent with these objectives. This study, agnostic to the amount and timing for future federal and state funding, provided a better understanding of the long-term consequences of corridor wide improvements and provided a decision-making framework for CDOT and US 50 communities to use to plan and program.

US 50 stretches from California to Maryland and traverses the bottom third of Colorado from its border with Utah, over the Rockies, and then follows the Arkansas River valley east across the high plains into Kansas and the agriculturally rich "breadbasket" of the United States. US 50 is located on the National Highway Freight Network and is one of five federally designated high priority freight corridors in Colorado (High Plains Freight Corridor). It is the backbone of local and regional mobility for the towns and communities located along it and is also of vital national importance in terms of food security. There is a large HVAC manufacturer located in Pueblo, CO. Additionally, US 50 is essential to national and sustainable energy independence, as the nation's largest wind turbine manufacturer is located a few miles from the crossroads with US 50 in Pueblo, Colorado. These three sectors agriculture, manufacturing, and energy are the top employers in the region.

The majority of the rural communities along the US 50 corridor between Pueblo and the Kansas state line are amongst the state's poorest, and nearly all of the census tracts adjacent to the candidate project's proposed passing lanes meet the federal designation of persistent poverty and of historical disadvantage.

The tight-knit plains communities along US 50 are urgently invested in the completion of US 50 SHIFT. The communities have experienced an increase in tourism and truck traffic along the corridor in recent decades that wears on the condition of the roads they use daily to connect to each other and metro hubs. The truck traffic in particular has had a significant impact on the state of the highway, and the communities have a vested interest in seeing the highway modernized for efficiency and safety of commercial and personal drivers.

Location

The US 50 SHIFT Project consists of the installation of twelve individual passing lanes spread across five segments of the US 50 High Plains Freight Corridor between the urban center of Pueblo and the Kansas state line. Ten of the passing lanes are paired bidirectionally (eastbound/westbound) along the same stretch of US 50; two are 'independent' in that passing lanes will be installed in only one direction. An overview of the US 50 proposed passing lanes is shown on Figure 1.

The first two proposed passing lanes are located in the Pueblo to Fowler segment of the US 50 High Plains Freight corridor. Given its origin in Pueblo, this segment has the highest average daily traffic (ADT) of any of the segments, ranging from 4,500 to 18,000, with more than 10% of the traffic comprising commercial trucks and a following rate of more than 35%. This segment also has the most accidents of any segment, with three fatalities and nearly ninety injuries recorded between 2015 and 2020. One eastbound and one westbound passing lane are proposed for installation, just to the west of the town of Fowler, though still within the County of Pueblo.

The third proposed passing lane is located in the US 50 segment between the towns of Fowler and Manzanola and will be used by eastbound traffic. Both Fowler and Manzanola are located in Otero County, are amongst the poorest towns in Colorado on a per capita income basis, and are located within census tracts which meet federally designation for both areas of persistent poverty and are historically disadvantaged. ADT in this segment averages 4,700 per day, of which 10% are trucks, and has a following rate of 30%.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth passing lanes proposed for installation are located within the US 50 corridor segment between La Junta and Las Animas, the respective seats for Otero and Bent Counties. One eastbound and two westbound passing lanes are proposed for installation on this segment. ADT along this segment is 3,400, with 12% of traffic comprising commercial trucks, and with a following rate of 22%.

The seventh through tenth passing lanes proposed for installation are located in the US 50 segment between Las Animas to Lamar, the latter of which is the county seat and most populous municipality

in Prowers County. In Lamar the High Plains Freight Corridor intersects the federally designated Ports to Plain Freight Corridor with US 385/ US287 running north/south through the regional center. ADT in this segment of US 50 is 3,800 with nearly 20% of traffic comprising commercial trucks. This segment has the highest incidence of following within the Project's priority segments at 36%. There have been two fatalities recorded in this segment since 2015.

The final two proposed passing lanes for the US 50 SHIFT Project are located in the segment between Lamar and the Kansas border, including the towns of Granada and Holly. Key agricultural freight corridor US 385 spur north off of US 50 at Granada and this segment has the highest cohort of commercial trucks within the US 50 corridor at 21%. There have been two fatalities recorded within the Granada to Holly segment since 2015.

Project Parties

Otero County is the US 50 SHIFT grant applicant, with project partner Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) serving as the fiscal and capital sponsor. CDOT will contribute all of the funding match, including $27M in state (non-federal) and other federalized funding, and deliver the Project through construction. Otero County and CDOT have a strategic project partnership that leverages the deep local connections and investments of the County with CDOT's agency capacity to successfully deliver high-quality, large-scale transportation projects.

Because federal funding will be used, the project is being conducted in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). CDOT will conduct all cultural, natural, and other resource surveys required in order to ensure that all significant environmental resources are avoided and mitigated and that the public is informed of the proposed project and provided the opportunity to comment. Throughout the course of project development, Otero County and CDOT will continue to coordinate with the FHWA, county governments, municipal planning organizations, and other agencies as necessary to obtain the permits and approvals needed.

Stakeholder collaboration is the foundation for equitable transportation solutions, and development of the US 50 SHIFT Project has taken place over the past two decades in collaboration with regional planning organizations and local communities. The stakeholders have consistently emphasized that US 50 is a priority freight corridor of local, regional, state, and national significance. This view is consistent with USDOT's view, as it is one of five federally designated high priority freight corridors within the state. The following municipalities and organizations have worked with CDOT to develop and implement transportation solutions and have written letters of support the US 50 SHIFT Project:

United States Senator Michael Bennet

City of Las Animas

United States Senator John Hickenlooper Colorado Governor Jared Polis

Southeast Colorado Enterprise Development

Pueblo Area Council of Governments

Baca County

Bent County

Prowers County

City of La Junta

City of Lamar

Town of Eads

Town of Holly Town of Ordway

Town of Walsh

Inspiration Field

Ports to Plains Alliance

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