Latest Red Lady roundabout plan has major tweaks

Planning with CDOT continues and construction to begin this summer

By Mark Reaman

Construction of the Red Lady roundabout is slated to begin this coming summer, and planning is currently at about the 60% stage. The Crested Butte town council received an update on the plans on Monday. The goal is to have most of the design finished in February with a final plan in place by this spring.

Crested Butte Public Works director Shea Earley along with community development director Mel Yemma provided a history of what Yemma termed the “peanutabout” based on its configuration, and how the town is working with the school district, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), along with transportation consulting firm, Kimley Horn. The most recent plan includes more pedestrian crossings than originally anticipated but it was determined by the consultants that traffic counts did not warrant the immediate need for a right-hand turn lane to be used specifically for vehicles dropping students off at the Crested Butte Community School. The plan calls for pedestrian crossings on Red Lady Avenue both toward the school and toward Red Lady Estates, Seventh Street and Sixth Street north of the roundabout. There will not be a pedestrian crossing on the southern side of the roundabout on Highway 135.

“Staff conducted a field visit to other ski and resort towns in Colorado and learned that roundabouts without pedestrian crossings are all being retrofitted later at significant cost,” a staff report from Earley and Yemma stated. “Consistent with the town’s transportation mobility goals of improving pedestrian options and safety, it is recommended to include pedestrian crossings at all intersections, except the southern crossing across Highway 135. This crossing can connect to existing sidewalks and integrate with the Town’s perimeter trail concept in the Parks, Recreation, Open Space and Trails Plan. A future pedestrian connection from this area to Big Mine will be evaluated and designed in 2026 to extend connectivity beyond this location.”

It was clear that the pedestrian crossings will be primarily used in spring, summer and fall and include flashing pedestrian lights when people are using them.

“We’ve heard from other places that these roundabouts are challenging in the winter in terms of snow removal,” said Earley. “We anticipate the roundabout will require us to move snow more often as there is not enough space to just store it near the roundabout.”

The staff memo acknowledged that winter maintenance and snow removal is not feasible for the pedestrian crossings, “as the town will already need to adapt its snow removal practices for the roundabout itself. Similar to the sidewalk by the Knight and Dragon, these crossings would remain unplowed in winter, with Belleview and Town Park serving as alternative safe routes. The school will continue using its designated safe route through Town Park, while the new roundabout will provide safer crossing opportunities for the broader public.”

Earley said the town and school district are also looking at the possibility of having a Mountain Express bus stop located at the school to help safely transport students.

Seeing that the current plan did not include a designated right turn lane into the school, Crested Butte mayor Ian Billick said he thought that was something that should be front and center with the public. Councilmember John O’Neal expressed concern over the absence of the designated lane.

Consultant Adam Gomez of Kimley Horn said the traffic analysis indicated that the roundabout would function well as designed. He said the roundabout helps with disbursement of traffic where everyone yields and then traffic is dispersed slowly. “The right turn only lane is not warranted at the current traffic levels, even at peak school hours,” he said. “If you want to incorporate it later, you can use the same geometry as shown on this plan.”

Councilmember Mallika Magner noted that there are several developments in the pipeline that could add to both school and general traffic citing the Whetstone, Lower Verzuh and Starview developments. “It would be terrible to build this, and then for it not to be usable,” she said.

Earley said the movement of the underground utilities are such that they could build the additional lane in the future.

“One key in these things is not to overbuild too early,” said Gomez. “CDOT has to endorse the numbers to justify such a turn lane, and the growth numbers aren’t there to justify it at this point. Even with 15% growth in 10 years that doesn’t warrant the lane.”

“The failure at that intersection right now is not the right-hand turn into school,” said town manager Dara MacDonald. “It is the left-hand turn off of Red Lady Avenue and onto Highway 135. That is the problem right now and this solves that.”

“We don’t want to over-engineer this and it sounds like there is room to allow changes if necessary in the future,” said councilperson Gabi Prochaska.

Responding to a question from O’Neal, Gomez said it was anticipated that most vehicles approaching the roundabout will come into the roundabout at under 23 mph. Billick noted that the addition of a roundabout at Brush Creek Road should automatically slow down traffic heading toward the main hill into town.

Resident Jim Starr told the council that if there was no immediate need for a roundabout, they should perhaps consider postponing the construction until the need was more evident. That, he said, would save taxpayers money.

Later in the meeting, MacDonald reinforced to the council that CDOT made clear that the school expansion was subject to improvements at that intersection. And she reemphasized that the left-hand turn out of Red Lady was the primary issue at this point that needed to be solved.

Starr also expressed a concern raised by others that traffic from Belleview Avenue could back up into a roundabout.

Staff will bring back future plans to the council to keep them up to speed with how the ‘peanutabout’ is evolving.