U.S. 287 study calls for safety upgrades north, south of Longmont

Matthew Bennett, Daily Times-Call, Longmont, Colo.
·2 min read

Apr. 23—Boulder County officials recently wrapped up a $649,000 traffic study about U.S. 287 in hopes of one day ending traffic fatalities and serious injuries along the busy transit corridor.

The study calls for officials to decide on safety improvements along the major thoroughfare that connects Longmont, Lafayette and Erie. One of the study's findings is that 29% of all fatal crashes in Boulder County from 2021 to 2022 were on U.S. 287. In January, two people were killed in a head-on collision just north of Longmont along U.S. 287.

The Longmont City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to accept the study's findings.

Most of the fatal and serious crashes along U.S. 287 happened in rural areas with high speed limits and involved drivers crossing over the centerline into the opposite direction of traffic, according to the study.

The study recommends that workers install a roughly 4-mile-long median barrier just north of Longmont from Park Ridge Avenue to the Boulder-Larimer county border and another estimated 8-mile-long median barrier south of the city between Pike Road and Arapahoe Road.

Longmont paid $13,000 into the U.S. 287 Vision Zero Safety and Mobility Study, with the remaining funding came from Boulder County, grant dollars and other neighboring cities. In all, the study focuses on the roughly 24-mile stretch of U.S. 287 between Midway Boulevard in Broomfield and Horseshoe Circle on the Boulder-Larimer county line. Officials started collecting study information in the winter of 2022 and wrapped it up in December 2023.

"For the projects north and south of the city of Longmont, the city would help with letters of support for the state and county to pursue federal grants," said Phil Greenwald, Longmont transportation planning manager. "The city may also help pay for some of the matching dollars to support this effort as well."

In other transit news, the City Council approved a property purchase at 617 First Ave. to help make room for the planned future First and Main Transit Station facilities project. The site, which is slated to be sold for $800,000, appears to have been a small hardwood business.

City officails and RTD representatives signed an agreement in 2017 to move forward on building a new transit facility near First Avenue and Main Street to support a public bus rapid transit service between Longmont and Boulder.

City officials are acquiring the needed parcels to be able to build the transit facility, the mayor said Tuesday.

"These parcels that are being purchased by the city are conversations that are being held with the property owners," Mayor Joan Peck said. "There's no eminent domain, and it is fair market value and-or relocation of the business."