To: Board of County Commissioners
Through: Bryan Weimer, Director, Public Works and Development
Prepared By:
prepared
Steven Buckley, Engineer III, Transportation, Public Works and Development
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presenter
Presenter: Steven Buckley, Engineer III; Jim Katzer, Transportation Manager, Public Works and Development
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Subject:
title
2:30 PM *Arapahoe County Comprehensive Safety Action Plan
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Purpose and Request:
recommended action
The purpose of this Study Session is update the Board about the status of the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, inform the Board about the feedback received from public engagement activities, summarize the key findings of crash data analysis, present a draft list of future safety enhancement projects that have been selected to correct identified safety issues, and to solicit the Board’s feedback on the criteria used in project prioritization and plan implementation.
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Alignment with Strategic Plan: Safe and Healthy Communities - Advance public safety by strengthening partnerships across law enforcement, emergency response, and community stakeholders.
Background and Discussion: The Transportation Division is currently working on a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan for the unincorporated areas of the County. This Plan continues a long-established practice of the Division to seek continuous improvements to roadway safety for all users by periodically preparing a plan that prioritizes future Capital and Operational safety projects on the County’s roadways.
This Comprehensive Safety Action Plan project will be based on the Safe Systems Approach to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the County’s roads, and will:
1) Examine the last seven years of crash data on all public roadways in the unincorporated areas of the County (except for limited access highways such as E-470, I-70, etc.), with a particular focus on identifying root causes of crashes that caused fatalities or severe injuries.
2) Determine high-crash-rate locations and high-injury or fatality locations.
3) Engage and solicit feedback from both the public and from other agency stakeholders such as CDOT and Colorado State Patrol on emerging and current transportation safety issues and problem locations.
4) Recommend future actions to reduce fatal and severe-injury crashes in the form of policy and procedure changes, and traffic operations and capital improvement projects.
5) Prioritize those recommendations for implementation.
6) Prepare a final Plan summarizing the recommendations and prioritization and seek formal Board adoption of that Plan by May 2026, and
7) Identify high-priority projects for a potential 2026 Safe Streets for All Grant Application, pending future Board approval.
The Safety Action Plan complements the Transportation Master Plan’s strategy of implementing effective safety improvements on County roadways, and if adopted, will be a foundational document informing future Capital Improvement Program budget requests.
Staff previously presented to the Board on the Safety Plan at a Drop-In on November 24, 2025, discussing the purpose of the project and project schedule. Staff also discussed the potential Safe Streets for All Grant Application at a Drop-In on January 27, 2026.
To date, the crash data analysis has been completed, and a draft list of site-specific and systemic projects to correct safety issues has been generated. Public engagement has also taken place, via a County website that collected public comments, and three public meetings in the Federal Enclave, Four Square Mile, and Byers, from February 10-12, 2026.
At this study session, staff will share feedback received from the public engagement, the results of the data analysis, and initial project recommendations. The Board will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the recommendations to help shape the Final Plan documents that will be presented in May to the Board to consider for adoption.
Alternatives: N/A
Fiscal Impact: There is no immediate fiscal impact associated with any feedback on prioritization that that Board may offer, but individual projects or safety programs would have a cost that would be reflected in future budget years.
Alignment with Strategic Implementation Strategies: The attached framework helps Arapahoe County institutionalize values-based, transparent decision-making, documenting how we make decisions and carry out actions to achieve the county’s strategic plan.
Staff Recommendation: N/A
Concurrence: N/A