City of Fruita awarded Colorado Department of Transportation grant for the South Mesa Street Gateway Multi-Modal Transportation Project.

June 8, 2022

The City of Fruita has been awarded a Revitalizing Main Street Grant for $1,736,000 from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to implement the South Mesa Street Gateway Multi-Modal Transportation Project. This project is the second phase in the City of Fruita’s “Fruita Civic Center Memorial Park and Downtown Streetscape Improvements Plan.” The first phase included many improvements to Aspen Street (between Circle Park and Peach Street), that were completed in 2015. South Mesa Street is the primary gateway to downtown Fruita from Highway 6&50, just south of Aspen Street. The project will allow for a transportation corridor that safely accommodates all modes of travel by creating a safe, slow-speed road for pedestrians, bikes, and vehicles. The project will connect a multimodal corridor with main street businesses and minimize conflicts with vehicles by providing safe access for residents and visitors. In addition, these improvements will ease residential and commercial traffic from nearby streets and provides an important connection for people who live or work in downtown Fruita.

Enhancements to South Mesa Street will include converting on-street parallel parking to diagonal parking to increase the number of parking spots, consolidating some of the access drives, constructing continuous sidewalks, adding planting islands at drive accesses to enhance the streetscape, and replacing approximately 600 feet of sewer line along South Mesa Street. These changes, in addition to narrowing the street, will help with traffic calming for all users and the lower speed limit will allow bikes and vehicles to easily share the road.

“We love when deliberate planning and community engagement transitions to on the ground improvements. We thank CDOT for the grant that stretches the City’s funds further, while positively impacting the community.” – Mike Bennett, City Manager.
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Media Contact: Ciara DePinto, Communications and Engagement Specialist, cdepinto@fruita.org, 970-858-3663