Updated federal requirements are driving up costs for the entrance to Aspen reevaluation.
The city of Aspen budgeted $2.54 million for the National Environmental Policy Act reevaluation, which the Aspen City Council greenlit in July 2025. But city staff plan to ask the city council to approve additional funding to complete the reevaluation, due to additional project requirements. Aspen Assistant City Manager Teika Carlson declined to share the exact dollar amount they anticipate will be needed because, she said, the city is trying to figure out the most cost-efficient way to complete the reevaluation.
The additional funding is due to extended project management resulting from schedule delays and previously unanticipated requirements, like tribal consultation and other federal and state review processes.
“Standards have changed in some ways since [the original environmental impact statement was completed], and become a little bit more stringent in some ways,” Carlson said.
The city council will review the additional budget request and other updates on the project during a Sept. 22 work session.
Since a majority of council members agreed to move forward with a reevaluation of the entrance to Aspen last summer (as opposed to a brand new, and lengthier, environmental impact study), the city has worked with the Federal Highway Administration, the Colorado Department of Transportation and other community stakeholders to reevaluate the 1998 “preferred alternative” — a plan to replace the current entrance to town by rerouting Highway 82 over a portion of the Marolt and Thomas open spaces and bypass the S-Curves to reconnect with Main Street at its intersection with Seventh Street.
Carlson said the project team anticipates the final reevaluation will be sent to the Federal Highway Administration for review in late spring of 2027, with a decision anticipated in early summer.
The officials reviewing the reevaluation will determine whether “no substantial changes have occurred in the social, economic, or environmental impacts of the proposed action that would substantially impact the quality of the human, socio-economic, or natural environment,” or whether the document is “no longer valid or more information is required” through a supplemental EIS, the Aspen Daily News previously reported.
If the reevaluation is approved, the state and federal agencies will recommend advancing the project to the next phase of development, which would mean a detailed design of the new roadway and a search for funding sources at the local, state and federal levels to complete the project.
When the city first moved forward with the reevaluation, it said the process could be completed as early as November 2026. But a late 2025 federal shutdown impacting the FHWA slowed progress, as did the new project scope requiring additional funding.
Right now, Jacobs Engineering is focusing on several technical memos required to complete the reevaluation, Carlson said. Those memos include impacts to historic properties and open space, both state and federal requirements to be considered as part of the reevaluation.
As part of the reevaluation, the city sought community feedback for proposed modifications to the preferred alternative. It hosted an open house in March to showcase the options, and collected online feedback for months afterwards.
The modifications included alternative configurations for Cemetery Lane, the Maroon Creek roundabout and Main Street parking and bus lanes.
City staff will present updated designs, including which alternatives did and did not pass further review criteria, to the city council during the Sept. 22 work session.
