A wide variety of multi-modal road construction and upgrading projects will soon be in the working stage in Greeley, Colorado, owing to the outcome of a local ballot proposal earlier this month.
The Ordinance Number 2M ballot question asked for the City of Greeley to take on around $65 million in debt, to be paid with existing voter-approved taxes, to support the building of a new highway interchange and upgraded transportation corridor.
Those projects will all be a part of the city’s larger Mobility Expansion for Regional Growth and Equity program, an effort designed to build a regional mobility hub that will include extensive improvements to existing roadways.
According to city documents, the MERGE program’s purpose is to spearhead “multiple transportation components to meet the needs of a fast-growing, diverse, and young community.”
The holistic effort includes converting traditional intersections into interchanges, allowing for a better traffic flow, building auxiliary lanes, and providing for more immediate transit station access.
Greely officials have been particularly enthusiastic about the MERGE effort, maintaining that it has the potential of reducing roughly 40% of crashes at one particular interchange through the elimination of traffic signals, while additionally improving the movement of freight through the city.
In promoting the MERGE program, city officials have noted that it is particularly in response to a population increase, seeing Greeley go from around 77,000 people two decades ago to nearly 109,000 today and thus adding to area traffic congestion.
The ballot question was approved by a more than two-to-one margin.
November 22, 2024
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
