The Road That Helped Make Keystone a Town Is the Hardest Thing for It to Fix

At the Keystone Town Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, council member Jon Hagenow described something he had seen the day before. A new employee had been dropped off at Gateway Mountain Lodge and was pulling two suitcases down the right-hand side of US Highway 6. Summit Daily News reported his question to the council. "How do we justify that somebody could get killed on the road because we didn't want to put sidewalks in first before a median is looking nice?"

The meeting was about money, and it showed that a full US 6 sidewalk is out of reach for the town's capital budget through 2032. Keystone's two-year-old government will improve walking along the highway one crossing and one short segment at a time. For the coming winter, the safest way through town is a set of paths on the south side of the highway that the town's own plan calls hard to find.

The Crossing Was Part of the Reason for Incorporating

The Keystone Comprehensive Plan names the need for safer pedestrian crossings of US 6 as one of the major issues that moved the community toward incorporation. In the plan's survey, improving pedestrian safety at US 6 crossings ranked first among all initiatives. Fifty-one percent of respondents rated the ease of walking in Keystone "Poor" or "Fair." Among full-time residents, the figure was 59%.

The town doesn't own the road. US 6 is managed and maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation, so any sidewalk or crossing work on the highway needs state coordination. It is also a designated hazardous materials corridor, and the plan notes that trucks coming down from Loveland Pass into Keystone often reach high speeds.

The plan describes the result plainly. Town sidewalks are disconnected and end abruptly. People walk on the highway shoulders in snow, ice, and darkness, especially resort workers going to and from workforce housing. The scene Hagenow described matches that account.

Why a $2.5 Million Sidewalk Doesn't Fit

Summit Daily reported the figures from Town Manager John Crone's staff report. Keystone has about $1,620,000 a year for capital projects under its current budget. That money covers required maintenance as well as improvements. A large share is committed before any new project is considered:

The road figure comes from a 30-year schedule that maintains a different 3% of the town's roads each year. After those obligations, the town expects about $2,380,000 for capital projects from 2028 through 2032. Of that, $1,125,000 doesn't become available until 2032. Over the same period, the council has identified $6,370,000 in projects it would like to do but hasn't funded.

The sidewalk project could cost up to $2,500,000, which is more than the entire five-year total. "If we do that, our capital budget (is) busted," council member Dan Sullivan said at the meeting. "We can't do anything else."

The comprehensive plan already assumes this. It calls for completing continuous US 6 sidewalks gradually over 10 to 20 years. Segments would be chosen by safety, by connections to transit, jobs, and housing, by cost and feasibility, and by grant availability. The plan says the work will take substantial public funding and coordination with CDOT.

What the 2027 Draft Pays For

Since the whole corridor can't be done at once, the draft 2027 budget pays for pieces. Lodging Tax Fund capital money goes to a Rasor Drive sidewalk, a rebuild of Tennis Club Road, and median maintenance. The 2027 Lodging Tax capital line totals $950,000. That includes $850,000 for road construction and repaving, $80,000 for trail construction and improvements, and $20,000 for engineering and design. The staff report calls the budget preliminary and open to revision before the public hearing and adoption in December.

The council disagreed about where the rest of the money should go. As Summit Daily reported, Crone agreed that "life safety is absolutely the most important thing." He also argued for the community's appearance, saying, "We need the tourist dollars. We need to help generate tourism in Keystone so that we can do things like build the sidewalks and, maybe at some point, provide better transit." Council member Carol Kerr said she would "like to see that bus stop move forward," referring to a proposed stop the staff report priced at $300,000. Mayor Ken Riley said, "There's a balance that isn't everything goes into medians or everything goes into U.S. 6." The council made no formal decision that night.

Where the Plan Says Walking Breaks Down

Because the work will come in segments, it helps to know where the plan says the problems are. These are the spots its site visits and resident input identified:

• Rasor Drive. The at-grade crossing uses a rectangular rapid flashing beacon, which the plan says drivers obey about 85% of the time. There is no landing on the south side, and once you cross it isn't clear how to reach the Community Path. The plan recommends upgrading to a pedestrian hybrid beacon.
• Tennis Club Road. The crossing is striped but has no curb ramps or sidewalks, so people end up walking in the street at either end. A recently built sidewalk now connects Tennis Club Road to the bus stop. The plan calls for extending sidewalks east to Decatur Road and the Keystone Lake area.
• Landfill Road and Antlers Gulch Road. Between these roads, the safe way to the Recreation Path is to backtrack east to the underpass at the Lakeside Village and Conference Center parking lot. Some people cross US 6 at the unprotected intersections instead. The plan recommends a pedestrian hybrid beacon at Landfill Road and formal paths from West Hills and Elk Crossing Lane.
• Tenderfoot. From the Tenderfoot employee housing, getting to East Keystone means heading west past the Conference Center, crossing, and then walking back east. The plan suggests a new crossing between Rasor Drive and the Conference Center, or a north-side route linking Tenderfoot to Rasor.

The 2027 draft funds a sidewalk at the first location on this list and a road rebuild at the second.

The South Side Already Works, If You Can Find It

South of the highway, the Recreation Path and Community Path already connect River Run Village and Lakeside Village. The north side has the larger gaps, and some trips there require crossing the highway twice. The plan calls the south-side network the more complete one but says it is "not well-known and is difficult to navigate." Connection points aren't obvious, and wayfinding and signage are lacking.

The Snake River Recreation Path is part of this network. It runs 4.8 paved miles from Keystone to Dillon Reservoir and connects to the countywide system. Summit County lists the River Run Summit Stage stop as 0.1 miles from the Keystone and Snake River Recpaths.

For the five-year horizon, the plan lists smaller interim steps:

1. More visible crossings
2. Shoulder lighting and winter maintenance
3. Wayfinding signs that point people to safer routes
4. Advocating for lower speeds on US 6

Transit also serves the corridor. The Summit Stage Silverthorne–Keystone winter timetable takes effect Sunday, Nov. 15, and runs through April 17, 2027. The first listed bus is at 6:15 a.m. and the last is at 12:15 a.m. Keystone Resort's getting-here page posts its color-coded winter shuttle routes. It also lists an on-call service from 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. at 970-496-4200. The plan notes these services are built for the resort and for regional trips, which leaves gaps for local errands. In its survey, 74% of respondents said they rode a bus or other transit once a month or less, or not at all, over the previous year.

November 10 Is When Residents Can Weigh In

The 2027 budget, including the Rasor Drive sidewalk and the rest of the capital list, goes to a public hearing next week.

• When: Tuesday, Nov. 10. The council meeting starts at 7 p.m., after a 4 p.m. work session, according to the Town's council meetings page.
• How to comment: in person during the designated comment periods, or by emailing written comments to [email protected]. Remote viewing is linked from the meeting agenda.
• What follows: the staff report lists a Dec. 8 council meeting as the next step in the budget process.

The budget that comes out of that hearing will decide which segment of US 6 is next in line. In the meantime, the underpass at Lakeside Village and the paths south of the highway are the safest connections Keystone has.

Whether you own in Keystone or are thinking about it, how close a place is to a safe crossing, a recpath connection, or a Summit Stage stop matters every day in winter. At Lindblom Groupe, we keep track of how Keystone's town plans are changing its streets and paths, and we're glad to talk through how those changes affect a particular property. Contact Us.