BRIGHTON — The Colorado Department of Transportation is conducting a study of the Highway 85 corridor to create a new vision for a 62-mile stretch of highway from Interstate 76 to the Town of Nunn.

The US 85 Planning ad Environmental Linkage Study, which kicked off in January, will identify the deficiencies of the existing highway as well as those that could present themselves in the future, according to Consulting Project Manager Chris Fasching. He said  they have completed an inventory of the highway — its physical, traffic and safety characteristics — and that future growth along the highway through the year 2035 will also be included in the study.

“At the end of this we’ll really end up with a long list of projects of improvements and enhancements to do up and down the corridor and a priority — which ones should be done first, which ones should be done second and third, etc,” he said. “And it kind of positions the corridor and all of the towns and cities and counties along the corridor to request money because they’ll know where the money should go first and why.”

CDOT Project Manager Gloria Hice-Idler said safety is the most repeated concern they hear from the public and that they want to know what can be done to make the corridor safe.