Residents of Durango were jubilant when state voters approved Referendum A in 1999, assured they would finally get funds to widen U.S. 550 from the city limits to the New Mexico line.
When state revenues dried up three years ago, the project languished, leaving residents frustrated and angry.
This year, highway officials are promising to put the project on another list, this time in exchange for their vote for a plan to fix the state budget.
Residents in Durango say it will take more than sweet talk and promises to get their votes this time.
“This has been a sore point for us. If the ballot secures funding so our projects cannot be delayed for a Front Range project, we’d feel safer about that,” said Bobby Lieb, director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce.
State transportation commissioners met Wednesday to review a preliminary plan to spend $1.7 billion to improve highways if voters approve a budget fix in November, and they once again put the project on a list. It is sixth in line behind other projects that were promised and not completed in the region, including work on U.S. 160 through Wolf Creek Pass.
Other projects approved by voters six years ago and placed on the new list include working on Interstate 25 north of Castle Rock, widening U.S. 287 from Limon to Campo, improving ramps on Interstate 70 in Eagle County and widening I-25 in Weld County. The state said it finished 13 of the 28 projects and is making progress on the rest.
Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, said voters were told in 1999 there were no guarantees that specific projects would be built, and there are no guarantees this time that projects that win approval will be finished.
“Economic factors can change, but the commitment is there to finish these projects,” she said.
Gov. Bill Owens said in his 1999 State of the State speech that the bonds were intended to cut the time needed to build strategic projects from 48 years to 25 years.
The 11 commissioners will take the new list of projects back to their districts and are scheduled to return June 16 to vote on them.
Once specific projects are approved, commissioners will go out and try to sell the plan to voters.
Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, said unlike Referendum A, which provided transportation bonds, the proposed budget fix would guarantee that if the state gets more money for highways, every region gets a share.
Isgar said southwestern Colorado got shortchanged on Referendum A because the money ran out before engineering studies could be finished, a mistake that has been rectified.
“We felt like we kind of got shorted on that,” Isgar said.
House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, said supporters of the budget fix and the bonding plan are in a bind because most of the voters live on the Front Range and will want most of the money, once again shortchanging rural areas.
Janet Anderson, executive director of the Southeast Transportation Planning Region, which helps set highway construction priorities for the region, said rural areas have long had some animosity toward Denver and the Front Range for taking the lion’s share of state highway funds, but motorists need to understand that everyone benefits, no matter where the roads are built.
“I think we have to look at it as a statewide plan and a statewide need,” she said.
Transportation Commissioner Terry Schooler, who represents the Colorado Springs region, said if voters approve the budget fix and bond money, it will only be a down payment on the state’s future transportation needs.
“The real deal here is that this is not enough money to take care of all of our transportation needs. It’s not a cure-all,” he said.
