DENVER – Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet announced the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) will receive a $13,009,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) Grant Program to construct their Regional Transit Center (RTC) in Glenwood Springs.
“One of the best things we can do to support rural communities in Colorado and across the country is invest in infrastructure,” Bennet said. “I’m thrilled to announce this critical grant to finish construction of the Regional Transit Center—a long-awaited project that will provide necessary transportation improvements for Coloradans on the West Slope.”
The RFTA is the nation’s largest rural transit agency by ridership, providing more than five million rides per year throughout Garfield, Eagle, and Pitkin Counties. These grant funds will help complete a regional transit hub to improve operations and mobility management for the agency. The RTC will meet RFTA’s current and future transit maintenance capacity needs and support the growing transit demands throughout the region. Once complete, the RTC also will help expand one of Colorado’s statewide transit services, Bustang, which is an interregional express bus service.
Earlier this year, following support from Bennet, RFTA also was awarded $11.475 million in Federal Transit Administration Section 5339 Bus and Facilities grant funding for the RTC project.
Bennet has consistently advocated for DOT grants to support the RTC project. Earlier this year, Bennet and U.S. Senator Cory Gardner wrote to DOT Secretary Elaine Chao advocating for RFTA’s BUILD grant application. In 2019, Bennet, Gardner, and U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton sent a similar request to Secretary Chao in support of the project.