City Council has approved the purchase of a right of way dedication as part of the city’s plan construct a multi-model trail from Snow Bowl Plaza to Sleepy Bear Mobile Home Park along the the south side of U.S. Highway 40 in west Steamboat Springs.

The easement acquisition will see the city acquire 126 square feet for $1,390 from KTH Enterprises, the owner of the Sleepy Bear Mobile Home Park.

The acquisition is another step for the city as it moves forward with its west Steamboat trail project, which has been in the planning and design phase since 2021.

“Effectively, the project is shovel-ready from a design standpoint, ready to go,” said Danny Paul, a civil engineer for the city. “We just need to get the last bit of funding and easements.”

“Highway 40 is getting busier and busier and more people are walking on the highway, and so this will be a very important project,” he added.

Paul said city staff hope construction will begin in 2025 with a goal of completing the work in 2026. He also explained how the project has been broken down into three phases.

Fully funded at a cost of $4.1 million with support from the Colorado Department of Transportation, Routt County and Yampa Valley Electric Association, the first phase will extend an existing sidewalk near Snow Bowl to the west where it will ultimately link with Sleepy Bear.

Phase two of the project currently has $4.5 million in funding secured but would require $5.7 million to complete, according to Paul. It would see the construction of an underpass beneath U.S. 40 just east of Slate Creek between the driveways of the KOA and the mobile home park.

The underpass work, which Paul noted would lead to significant traffic disruptions, would connect to the Overlook Park subdivision’s secondary access road currently under construction.

The third phase of the trail construction would see the trail extended through the Yampa Valley Housing Authority’s Brown Ranch property, but when that work might begin and how it would be funded are unknown.

“There is no funding in place for that,” said Paul. “The YVHA actually requested that we not build that through the property and encumber space until that project is ready to move forward.”

Paul underscored the importance of moving forward with phase one of the project by the end of 2025 due to time limits on a portion of the grant funding offered by CDOT.

Council members are scheduled to meet in executive session Sept. 3 to discuss additional easement acquisitions, and funding for phase two will need to be secured before final approvals from CDOT are obtained and construction bids are issued for the project.

Pending a successful bidding process, city staff hope to begin construction in 2025.