Rep. Neguse Secures $1.45 Million in Federal Funding for Community-Based Projects in Boulder County

Lafayette, CO — Today, Congressman Joe Neguse announced a total of $1,450,000 in Community Project Funding for Boulder County. Rep. Neguse successfully championed and secured the investments as part of the first set of government funding bills signed into law by President Biden on Saturday, March 9. The funding includes $950,000 for watershed and wildfire-related research at the University of Colorado Boulder and $500,000 for the Town of Erie to make highway and transportation improvements along the Colorado Highway 7 corridor. 

“I am proud to have fought to secure funding that will help make Boulder County healthier, safer, and stronger—investing in community-based projects that will protect households and families in Boulder, Erie and across the Front Range,” said Congressman Neguse. “Whether it is advancing our understanding of the impacts wildfires have on our environment or improving our roads and intersections to protect the safety of local drivers, these projects take action to make a real difference for our state.” 

“I am thrilled the federal funding bill signed into law over the weekend includes funding for a research project to mitigate wildfire and land-use impacts on Colorado’s Yampa and Poudre Rivers,” said University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano. “A joint effort with Colorado State University, this project will examine water quality in these streams with the goal of enabling technology that will improve watershed resiliency from natural disaster and human activity. The university is grateful to Congressman Neguse for championing these vital research activities, which will benefit communities across Colorado.” 

“The Town of Erie is grateful for the support from the federal Transit Infrastructure Projects funding and we wouldn’t have succeeded without the support of Congressman Neguse. This funding will support increased safety, capacity, and transit along the massively popular Colorado Highway 7 corridor connecting Erie to Boulder, Brighton, Lafayette, Thornton, and the City and County of Broomfield,” said Miguel Aguilar, Senior Transportation Planner, Town of Erie.  

Additional information about the Boulder County-based projects: 

University of Colorado Boulder Watershed Monitoring – Boulder County, CO – $950,000 

• To implement in-stream water quality monitors in the Yampa River and the Cache de la Poudre watersheds to measure environmental outcomes and the impact wildfires have on watersheds. This project will not only help us understand the impact wildfires have on our precious watersheds, but the data collected by this project could also help NASA better understand the impacts this phenomenon has on our Earth systems as a whole. 

Town of Erie Improvements – Boulder & Weld Counties, CO – $500,000 

• To improve multimodal safety and increase multimodal capacity at priority locations and intersections along the Colorado Highway 7 corridor. This project is a packaged bundle of individual projects along the CO 7 corridor that have been identified by CDOT and community stakeholders to benefit the Towns of Erie and Frederick and the City of Dacono and to improve travel/reduce crashes for travelers in Boulder, Weld, Adams, and Broomfield County. 

Rep. Neguse secured additional investments for other communities in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, announcing a total of more than $11 million for 14 projects to directly benefit cities and towns in the district. 

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