El Paso County would need $2.44 billion to build all the projects outlined in a new transportation plan nearing completion. 

The Major Transportation Corridors Plan outlines 20 years of projects for the community and helps guide the roadwork that El Paso County requires of developers putting in new neighborhoods. It also helps calculate the road impact fees that developers pay to the county, said Victoria Chavez, the county’s transportation planning manager.

While the county is not setting out to raise all the funds for road projects, it would never pay the total bill anyway. The county uses a combination a sources to fund road projects, such as federal and state funds, and the Pikes Peak Rural Transit Authority, which collects a sales tax, she said. The authority is funding some of the community’s largest road projects, such as the expansion of Marksheffel Road. 

Still, the full cost is needed to calculate impact fees, she said. 

It also provides a sense of scope of the needs. 

El Paso County approved $40 million for roads in 2024 and expects to tackle high-priority projects, such as the intersection of Rex and Meridian roads this year. The Department of Public Works is also focusing on road preservation to help prevent failures, which is cheaper over time, said Kevin Mastin, the department’s executive director. 

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The plan shows 14% of the county’s paved roads need reconstruction, and 30% of the gravel roads need reconstruction. The plan calculates reconstruction needs by center-lane miles, not road-lane miles. 

The planned road projects are concentrated north and northwest of Colorado Springs, in an area that has seen rapid growth. 

The vision for county road projects was available in an interactive map for public review on a county website and planners made changes based on that feedback. The plan is not currently live, but a draft of the plan is. 

Consultant Jenny Young explained a major extension of Tercel Drive north of Woodmen Road, that would have made it an east-west route between Marksheffel Road and Towner Avenue, was eliminated based on residents’ concerns. 

“They don’t want to have cut-through traffic, making it less safe,” she said. 

Now the plan expects to connect Tercel Drive east to Towner and then extend Falcon Meadows Boulevard north to an extension of Woodmen Hills Drive that will go north to Stapleton Drive. 

While the road extensions proposed in the plan are not imminent, impact fee changes on development are likely. 

The county charges different road impact fees based on the type of home or business a developer proposes. The fee for a single-family home is $3,830, Chavez said. 

“We are working very hard to not increase those fees too dramatically. We think they are going to be pretty comparable,” she said. 

The transportation plan will go before the El Paso County Planning Commission later this year for approval. 

County commissioners must approve changes to road fees.