Summit County Safe Passages and East Vail Pass Feasibility Study

Summit County Safe Passages (SCSP) began as a county-wide effort to identify and prioritize wildlife movement conflict areas across Summit County, Colorado, home to the most-heavily recreated National Forest in the U.S. including five major ski resorts. ECO-resolutions co-led the planning process and developed a transparent and dynamic approach for combining data on wildlife habitat and movements with wildlife-vehicle collision data, expert opinion and anecdotal input. From the outset, the planning process drew insight and guidance from a diverse array of partners and stakeholders and incorporated their knowledge and interests into the plan, creating support for its outcomes. The resulting plan provides specific recommendations for protecting wildlife movement corridors and reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions across the county.

Since the completion of the plan, SCSP received funding from Vail Resorts, Arapahoe Basin Ski Resort and the Center for Large Landscapes to develop preliminary engineering concepts for three large wildlife crossings, including two underpasses and one overpass. As a member of the study team led by Wood Engineering, ECO-resolutions helped inform the design and evaluation of crossing structure alternatives at three locations to determine the best options for wildlife connectivity and motorist safety in a high alpine environment with severe winter snow conditions. The new crossing structures will connect to existing span bridges on eastbound I-70, completing the connection across the entire highway. For wildlife, this will provide safe passages between the vast swathes of the White River National Forest north and south of the interstate.