The Colorado Department of Transportation announced Wednesday its doling out more than 2 million dollars to the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority.
Most of the money RFTA is receiving comes from the state’s Faster program, which collects money through car registration fees. RFTA’s also getting federal funds. Overall the agency will collect nearly $2.4 million to fund four separate projects.
The money will help renovate an aging maintenance facility in Aspen, expand a similar facility in Glenwood so it can hold more buses, add one round trip a day to the Grand Hogback service from Glenwood to Rifle and create more parking spaces at an overcrowded park and ride lot in Carbondale. David Johnson is director of planning for RFTA.
"We will create parking for approximately 70 cars. And that’s to address just the general capacity issues that we’re experiencing in Carbondale."
The park and ride expansion in Carbondale should be complete by the end of the year. $3 million dollars from this cycle of CDOT grant funding will also support Bustang - the bus service between Glenwood and Denver that’s expected to start in mid-July.