CDOT continues tour of counties Thursday by talking road projects, funding for Colorado Springs

On Thursday, two days after addressing El Paso County commissioners, the Colorado Department of Transportation attended a similar meeting hosted by Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers and the City Council.

During the hourlong work session at City Hall, CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew updated the city on local projects and the agency’s ability to fund them.

City officials said they appreciate CDOT’s outreach efforts but remain frustrated that $2.5 billion in funding for local road projects still hasn’t been provided by state lawmakers.

“I can’t understand why the state doesn’t do what we and other local communities have done to generate funding,” Suthers said. “With our expanded street paving and stormwater projects, we found that voters will support fees or tax increases if they’re truly needed and you can specify where the money will be spent. The state will ask for a billion dollars and say that they’ll fill a need. People want to know more than that.”

Rocky Scott, a regional state transportation commissioner, said transportation is competing with funding for health care and higher education.

“The only way out of this situation is for voters to decide,” he said. “They rejected funding measures for transportation last year. They may consider passing something if they think it’s better.”

City officials also heard an update on the progress toward building a commuter rail system along Interstate 25 between Fort Collins and Trinidad as a way to ease traffic congestion and create a mass transit option.

Randy Grauberger, project director for the Southwest Chief and Front Range Rail Commission, said a study begins in August to provide more information about how feasible a rail system is.

“We hope to be able to ask voters next year to create a rail district,” he said. “It may take a few years after that to be ready to ask voters if they want a system, what kind of system, how to pay for it, where to put it and so on.”

Grauberger said the study also will determine whether a system should be built using existing freight lines or installing lines along Interstate 25.

The study will evaluate existing and new rail technologies.

“But it won’t be a superfast bullet train or anything like that,” Grauberger said. “The corridor is only 180 miles long, so speeds likely won’t exceed 90 mph. That’s very competitive with vehicular traffic on I-25, especially in 20 years when highway speeds will be slower because of more congestion.”

Other states, including neighboring Utah, have successfully started passenger rail systems, he said, and Colorado is at a competitive business disadvantage because major employers prefer to locate in cities with the most transit options.

Grauberger said on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 just starting the process and 10 having a system in place, “We’re maybe a 2.”

There’s also a possibility of Amtrak extending its Southwest Chief passenger rail line north to Colorado Springs.

“Amtrak thinks it would be profitable,” Grauberger said. “We’ll be having meetings to discuss it soon.”

Finally, CDOT provided an update on the I-25 “Gap” widening project between Monument and Castle Rock.

“We think we’ll have most of the project finished by the end of 2021,” said Karen Rowe, a CDOT regional director. “We should do final paving and testing of the toll lanes the following spring.”

Some council members were surprised and disappointed when CDOT revealed that several bridges in the Gap project, which were supposed to be replaced to allow for more lanes and wider shoulders, won’t be replaced for the foreseeable future.

“It ended up costing more than we anticipated,” she said. “It’s something we didn’t know until we got deeper into construction. Replacing all those bridges would cost an additional $47 million, and we’re on a tight budget. We’ll have to figure out how to replace those bridges at a later date.”

One of the affected bridges is the County Line Road bridge where El Paso County and Douglas County meet. Rowe said those counties will talk with CDOT about how that bridge might be replaced.

“We’re allowed to replace that bridge at its current capacity but those counties want to widen it and increase its capacity,” she said. “We can still fit all six lanes under the existing bridges and the toll lanes will start on the north side of the County Line Road bridge.”

After the CDOT meeting, Suthers and the council met for an hour with Gov. Jared Polis to discuss a variety of issues. Polis said he’ll do what he can to convince the Legislature to allocate more funding to transportation.

“They did a good job last session,” he said. “They allocated an additional $300 million. But it all depends on how the budget looks. I’m hopeful.”