Cecily DeAngelo was riding behind a Jeep on Owl Creek Road when a stag ran into its path and the two collided. That moment in 2022 is the reason Roaring Fork Safe Passages exists at all, and four years later the nonprofit she leads is still working the same stretch of Highway 82 that Woody Creek residents cross every time they drive to Aspen, the airport, or anywhere else in the valley.
If you drive that stretch of Highway 82 regularly, and if you live in Woody Creek you have no choice, you already know the feeling of slowing down near Brush Creek at dusk because something might step out of the tree line. What you may not know is how close, and how far, the actual fix still is.
The Six Miles Everyone Already Knows About
The segment of Highway 82 between the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport and Aspen Village has been documented by the Colorado Department of Transportation as one of the most dangerous wildlife corridors in the region. Over the past decade it has recorded more than 300 wildlife-vehicle collisions, 107 of them involving elk, and CDOT's own figures show that 55 percent of all reported crashes on this stretch involve an animal rather than another car.
Roaring Fork Safe Passages, the citizen-led nonprofit DeAngelo founded, has proposed two structures to address it: a wildlife overpass near the Brush Creek Park and Ride, sitting directly on Highway 82 where Woody Creek residents pass through on their way toward Aspen, and an expanded underpass near the airport where a culvert already exists but is currently too small and too enclosed for elk to use it comfortably.
The choice between an overpass and an underpass at Brush Creek was not a design preference. It came down to what is buried underground. An underpass at that location would run into an existing gas line and shale that makes excavation both expensive and hazardous, so the overpass became the only workable option once engineers looked at what was actually beneath the road.
The Land Problem That Stalled It
Progress on this project has not moved in a straight line. In September 2025, Roaring Fork Safe Passages asked the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners and the county's Open Space and Trails board for $350,000 to cover the bulk of a feasibility study and initial engineering design. The request stalled. Open Space and Trails Director Gary Tennenbaum told the board the situation involving airport property, the Brush Creek parcel, and Cozy Point was "very convoluted."
The complication traces back to Pitkin County's own purchase of the Brush Creek Park and Ride from CDOT, which came with a transit-related deed restriction. That restriction could directly affect where the proposed overpass is allowed to land, since the crossing's design puts one end of the structure on that same property. DeAngelo acknowledged at the time that Phase 1 work was unlikely to begin before early 2026, and that the county needed more time to sort out what the deed restriction actually permitted.
It is a reminder that even a project with broad public support and a clear safety case can get held up by paperwork tied to land nobody thought would be complicated.
What Actually Got Approved This Spring
The funding picture changed in April 2026. Roaring Fork Safe Passages had already raised $200,000 privately by February, and that April the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners voted to match it with another $200,000, completing the full $400,000 needed for an engineering feasibility study. The vote was not unanimous. Commissioners Jacober, Poschman, and Mahon approved the funding, Commissioner Clapper voted against it, and Commissioner Woodruff abstained.
That $400,000 buys engineering work through early 2027, according to reporting on the vote. It does not buy construction. The feasibility study itself is designed to answer the open questions that still stand between an idea and a shovel in the ground, and DeAngelo has described it as the bridge between having a good idea and knowing exactly how to build it.
The full cost of the project, once construction begins, breaks down roughly like this:
- Engineering feasibility study through early 2027: $400,000, already secured
- Wildlife diversion fencing along the corridor: $500,000 to $725,000
- Design and construction of the overpass and underpass combined: $22.4 million to $32.5 million, not including any additional property protections that may be needed
Put those numbers next to each other and the gap is obvious. The part that is funded is the smallest piece of the project by a wide margin.
Why "Funded" Still Means Years Away
The feasibility study currently underway is expected to bring the design to roughly 10 percent engineering, according to the Aspen Daily News's reporting on the project's scope. That is enough to understand structural requirements, permitting needs, and construction timelines. It is not enough to break ground.
There is one piece of good news on the horizon for future funding. The Colorado Legislature passed the Wildlife Collision Prevention Act this spring, creating a fund supported by an optional five dollar fee that Colorado drivers can add when they renew vehicle registration. DeAngelo has said that money is expected to start flowing toward wildlife crossing construction beginning in 2027, though she has been careful to note that funds from the state program will not necessarily come directly to the Brush Creek project. They add to a growing pool of money that projects like this one can compete for.
What that means in practice is that even in the best case, where the feasibility study finishes on schedule in early 2027 and state funding becomes available that same year, construction still needs its own multi-million dollar commitment before anything gets built. Roaring Fork Safe Passages has pointed to the Highway 9 crossing near Kremmling as the model worth watching. That project, a series of seven overpasses and underpasses, produced a 92 to 94 percent reduction in wildlife-vehicle collisions once fencing was added, based on a five-year study after construction. It took years to plan and build before those numbers existed. Brush Creek is still in the planning stage that Kremmling passed through a decade ago.
What Changes for You This Season, and What Doesn't
None of this changes how the drive feels this fall. Elk move through the Brush Creek corridor most actively at dawn and dusk, the same hours CDOT has flagged as the highest risk for collisions on this stretch. That pattern will not shift because a feasibility study is underway. The overpass, if it gets built, is still years from changing what you might encounter on your way to the airport or into town.
DeAngelo has talked about what it looks like once crossings like this are finished elsewhere, describing footage of a cow elk leading calves safely over a highway that used to claim them. It is the image the whole project is built around. For now, that image belongs to other towns.
What has changed, and what is worth knowing if you live along this corridor, is that the project finally has real money behind its engineering phase and a specific set of legal and structural questions it is working through in public. A related proposal to extend a trail across Highway 82 near the same retaining walls was shelved for exactly this reason. Engineers found the walls carry highly stressed vertical tendons that could not safely support both a trail and a wildlife structure at once, and the trail idea was set aside so the crossing project would not become more expensive or delayed.
That is the shape of infrastructure work in this part of the valley right now. Every piece touches every other piece, and the timeline for any of it running is measured in years, not months. If you want to follow where this actually stands, Roaring Fork Safe Passages posts updates as county votes happen, and the Aspen Times and Aspen Public Radio have covered each funding milestone as it lands.
For everything else about life in this stretch of the Roaring Fork Valley, from the roads you drive to the ground you might eventually buy or sell, Steven Shane has spent years paying attention to the details that make Woody Creek what it is. Work With Steven Shane when you are ready for that kind of local grounding.
