Resilient St. Vrain Project
Restore & Revitalize
Project Updates
Last updated June 21, 2023
See the Longmont Trail Status Map for the most up-to-date information on St. Vrain Greenway closures.
Project Overview
Resilient St. Vrain is Longmont’s extensive, multi-year project to fully restore the St. Vrain Greenway and improve the St. Vrain Creek channel to protect people, property and infrastructure from future flood risk. The project, sometimes referred to as RSV or RSVP, was developed after Longmont experienced catastrophic flooding in September 2013.
The project is divided into work areas called reaches. It began at the downstream end of the St. Vrain Creek (at Sandstone Ranch) in 2016 and will take many years to complete, including time for vegetation to take hold and grow. Visit the Areas of Work & Schedule page for more information on current and future reaches as well as the reaches that have already been completed.
The flood impacted hundreds of residents throughout the City, destroying personal property, businesses and public spaces, and caused extensive damage to much of the City’s infrastructure.
It also impacted segments of the Longmont population who face various barriers impeding equal access to information, whether that is language, social network gaps, media communication, basic needs and more. In 2016, the City of Longmont started Resiliency for All, a program designed to identify those barriers, develop recommendations that would be more inclusive of the community and create space for representation from the underserved portion of the community.
The cost for work on the Resilient St. Vrain Project has been estimated between $120 million and $140 million. This amount is not the City’s portion of the cost, because it also includes federal, state and other funding sources. Generally, for every dollar of cost, 75 cents is paid for by federal sources, with the remaining 25 cents divided between state and local sources. Visit the RSVP Funding Page for more information on costs of the project.
Learn more about the Resilient St. Vrain Project in the 3-minute overview video below.
Use the navigational links to learn more about the areas of work, schedule, funding and more.
Aprenda sobre el Proyecto Resiliencia St. Vrain. Para información en Español llame al 303-651-8416.
A large-scale project such as Resilient St. Vrain requires a great deal of organization, planning and design work even before the first shovel breaks ground. Longmont began working on designs for Resilient St. Vrain in 2014.
The preliminary design phase involved environmental permitting and other planning tasks, including ensuring the design plans incorporated the master plans already in place. These activities consider all potential options to select ones that will best meet the project goals.
An overview of the plans is created and reviewed, and changes are incorporated into the preliminary design. A very large project like Resilient St. Vrain has preliminary design documents for each phase of the planned work.
The final design plans provide most details needed for construction and landscaping to occur. At that point, a contractor is selected and construction work begins using the design plans. Extensive projects like Resilient St. Vrain have a Final Design plan for each phase of work planned.
St. Vrain Greenway Trail Detour
St. Vrain Greenway Trail closures have been moving steadily westward with progress on the Resilient St. Vrain project. Currently, the trail is closed from South Sunset Street on the western end to Price Road on the eastern end and is clearly marked with signs to safely route pedestrians and bicyclists around the work zone. Click here to open a PDF of the detour route that can be downloaded or printed for reference
Recreational Use of St. Vrain Creek
The St. Vrain Creek is open to public use downstream of Main Street, as part of the Dickens Farm Nature Area. Signs mark a designated open water access point at Main Street and takeout points east of Martin Street and at the 119th Street trailhead. Remember that any time you enter the creek, it is at your own risk. Learn more about guidelines for recreational use of St. Vrain Creek.
