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• encountered, a 150 foot right-of-way will be required. The design speed <br /> for the route is anticipated to be 50 miles per hour throughout its length, <br />except for the town of Somerset. <br />The study corridor for the environmental statement is about 26 miles <br />long and 3 miles wide with approximately a 1'--; mile margin on either side of <br />the existing highway. This yields a total Corridor area of about 80 square <br />miles. <br />History of the Project <br />Prior to its designation as State Highway 133 the main arterial roadway <br />of the North Fork Valley served as an access road for the residents of the <br />valley to the County seat in the city of Delta to the west. This early <br />• road terminated in the valley and did not cross the mountains to the east. <br />In 1946 the Chambers of Commerce of Paonia and Glenwood Springs contracted <br />with a private road builder to have a road surveyed and built across McClure <br />Pass. This rough road was completed in 1947 and connected with the main <br />roadway in the Valley of the North Fork. In 1948 and 1949 the roadway <br />between Hotchkiss and Paonia was improved to Secondary Standards of the time. <br />The State accepted successive portions of the road on the State System in <br />the late 1950's. By 1958 the road was paved to the intersection with Kebler <br />Pass Road. It was designated as State Highway 135 until 1963 when it was <br />redesignated State Highway 133. <br />The Highway remained in this condition until 1975 when Gunnison and <br />• <br />Delta Counties requested that the Highway Commission improve State Highway <br />133 from Paonia Dam to Hotchkiss. About the same time, because of the <br />national shortage of energy fuels and the resultant acceleration of coal <br />