May 13, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Mountain America is unusual in that none of its major metropolitan areas have completed beltways surrounding them. There are partial perimeter freeways, to be sure, and three of the cities – Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver – have made considerable progress on true beltways.

            Denver gained a measure of fame back in 1975 when then-Gov. Richard Lamm fulfilled a campaign promise to “drive a silver stake through the heart of I-470,” the planned metropolitan beltway, and had the project withdrawn from the federal Interstate Highway System. Within a few years, the state would end up paying a great deal higher price when, without the degree of assistance it would have received as an interstate, the first link...Read More

May 6, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Colorado has joined the growing number of states that have thrown up their hands and said, “We can’t find a solution to the highway funding problem this year – it’s not the right time – so we’ll do something about it next year.”

            The sole highway funding bill before the Colorado Legislature in its final week, Senate Bill 244 by Sen. Able Tapia (D-Pueblo), would have raised vehicle registration fees and added a daily fee on rental cars. After being debated and amended to effectively reduce its “take” by half, the bill was withdrawn by its sponsor shortly before it was to be considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The legislature, controlled by the Democratic party, adjourns for t...Read More

April 29, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The only active highway funding measure before the Colorado Legislature, Senate Bill 213, Sen. Andy McElhany’s proposal to toll portions of I-70 in the mountains west of Denver, has been postponed by its sponsor until after the Memorial Day weekend (and the legislature hopes to adjourn on May 7), effectively putting the bill to rest for this legislative session. 

            “I want everybody in the Memorial Day traffic jam to think, ‘For five bucks I could have avoided this,” the senator quipped.

            There was but slight chance that McElhany’s bill would have passed both houses and been signed by Gov. Bill Ritter (a vocal opponen...Read More

April 24, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

It’s become evident that, with the economy sagging, consumer confidence tanking, foreclosures still climbing, and gasoline prices at all-time highs, this is not the year for major funding increases for roads, highways and transit. In Colorado especially, where TABOR, the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, limits government budget increases to the rate of population growth plus inflation and requires voter approval of any and all tax increases, this is certainly the case. The only highway funding measure alive in the legislature would place tolls on a portion of Interstate 70 in the mountains west of Denver to help fund some as yet undetermined solution to congestion on that stretch of highway – congestion that occurs primarily on weekends and holidays during the winter ski season and summer tourist season. And that bill (Senate...Read More

April 16, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Haggling over funding for highways continues, at both the state and federal levels. In Colorado, Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany’s bill, SD-213, to allow the state to charge tolls of up to $5 on the portion of Interstate 70 between Floyd Hill and the Eisenhower/Johnson tunnels west of Denver took another step forward with its approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 7-3 vote. It now goes to the full Senate for consideration, and if approved there, to the House. There’s still a lengthy road ahead for a comparatively minor funding measure that would affect only one small (though highly important) segment of Colorado’s highway system.

In Arizona, meanwhile, two bills that would allow the Arizona Department of Transportation and oth...Read More