For the second time, hundreds of Eastern Plains residents flooded the state Capitol to fight a proposed massive toll-road project that would extend from Pueblo to Fort Collins.
They’re two for two.
Members of the state Senate Transportation Committee voted 6-1 to support Senate Bill 230, which would strip the power of condemnation from private tolling companies.
The committee vote followed a dramatic moment when supporters were asked to stand and be counted.
Inside the committee chambers – and two overflow rooms – 275 jumped to their feet.
The only opponent to stand represented the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The impression made on the committee was palpable. The one senator to dissent did so because CDOT wasn’t allowed to testify.
“We cannot allow 275 people to set highway policy for the people of Colorado,” Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, said.
The CDOT lobbyist, Herman Stockinger, hoped to argue for private investment in road projects.
“We’re hurting,” Stockinger said of the department’s budget. “This would be a $2 billion transportation corridor out east, and that’s not insignificant.”
A spokeswoman for Ray Wells and his Front Range Toll Road Co. said Wells would fight the bill. Last month, after a large protest, the Senate committee delayed indefinitely a House bill that would have helped Wells by streamlining how toll rates are set.
SB 230’s sponsor, Sen. Tom Wiens, drew laughs when he held up a map marked with a swath through the hills from Boulder to Pueblo.
Wiens, R-Castle Rock, said he incorporated “Gold Rush Toll Co.” during the lunch hour, using the same 1877 mining law Wells is using.
“I now have condemnation authority,” Wiens said. “I doubt that’s what the (1877) General Assembly envisioned.”
Staff writer Chuck Plunkett can be reached at 303-820-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com.
