Golden – All remaining road alignments for the last link of the metro beltway cut through Golden, officials confirmed Wednesday.
Golden officials blasted the decision, saying the outcome was predetermined and the result of a “secret meeting” between the Colorado Department of Transportation and its consultants.
City officials got word Tuesday that CDOT and others working on an environmental study have reduced Northwest Corridor alternatives from nine to four, and all use Colorado 93.
“They wasted all this time and $10 million of taxpayer money for a conclusion that we knew (they would come to) months ago,” said Golden City Manager Mike Bestor. “You talk about a phony process.”
He called the last 16 months of environmental analysis, meetings and community forums “window dressing.”
There have been no secret deliberations, CDOT Executive Director Tom Norton said from Shanghai, China, as he prepared to ride that city’s advanced magnetic-levitation monorail.
Norton said he and the Federal Highway Administration will decide the final 22-mile Northwest Corridor route in an open and transparent manner.
“All analysis and discussion have been very deliberate and open, and Golden was informed well in advance of when this decision would be made,” said CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman. “This is just another attempt by Golden to put up roadblocks in this study.”
The four routes to link the Northwest Parkway at U.S. 36 with C-470/U.S. 6 are a freeway; a tollway; a plan relying on regional arterials; and one that combines toll lanes with nontolled highway improvements.
Golden Mayor Chuck Baroch said the alignments encourage development, not traffic solutions.
Politics aside, the Golden options will not solve traffic problems, “and how in the hell are you going to pay for it?” asked Rob Medina, an executive board member of the Mountain Ridge development at Colorado 93 and 58. “Those two things have not been solved.”
The Golden routing would cost much less than options such as widening Indiana and McIntyre streets through Arvada and portions of unincorporated Jefferson County, Stegman said.
So far, about $6.6 million has been spent on the Northwest Corridor study. It could cost up to $14 million when finished, officials said. A draft environmental-impact statement should be available for public review and comment sometime next year.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.