Swan Mountain Road, which runs along the southeast side of the Dillon Reservoir and connects U.S. Highway 6 to Colorado Highway 9, will close from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday for preconstruction work.

Summit County communications director Adrienne Isaac said the preconstruction work will involve surveying and predesign investigative work, and maintenance workers will also clear ditches during the closure.

“It’s a streamlined closure marrying these two things, just to minimize the construction traffic,” Isaac said.

Actual construction work on Swan Mountain Road, considered to be one of the county’s most important roads and in poor condition, may not start this summer. The county applied for a federal grant to help finance construction on the road, and Isaac said the county cannot start construction until the grant is awarded.

The county will know around the end of June whether or not it will receive a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant. If it does not, Isaac said the county will begin construction on Swan Mountain Road this year.

“Of course, it’s better to have federal dollars to help us do it,” Isaac said. “That would take a strain off, you know, the county and the taxpayers, right? But if we don’t get that money, we gotta move.”

If the county does receive grant funding, it likely will not be able to start construction until 2026.

The 2025 county road and bridge budget includes $6.5 million to start the reconstruction of Swan Mountain Road. Without federal funds, the county has plans to budget money for the road in 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Summit commissioners decided in September 2024 to apply for the 2025 grant cycle — after missing out in 2024 — because the grant could provide around $20 million and allow the reconstruction to finish faster.

A Facebook post from the Summit County government page announced the preconstruction closure and joked that the road, currently looking like an “ugly duckling,” will soon be back to “swan status.”