Transportation planners have settled on express toll lanes as one of two alternatives to be considered for the $1 billion expansion along 18 miles of U.S. 36.
Officials working on a $15 million environmental study of the U.S. 36 corridor said Thursday that buses would share the express lanes with paying motorists if the toll-lane option is selected.
Planners also will study the possibility of adding non-tolled lanes, with some reserved for high-occupancy vehicles and buses.
At Thursday’s meeting, some local officials were skeptical of the tolling option.
“We need to see real information” on the tolling alternative, “how much revenue it generates and how much extra it costs,” said Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor.
Heather Balser, an assistant city manager for Louisville, agreed that local officials will need a detailed financial and traffic analysis of the toll proposal.
“We need ridership numbers,” she said. “Does it help mobility? Does it solve congestion?”
Local government officials in other parts of metro Denver have been critical of the express-toll option advanced by the Colorado Department of Transportation. Douglas County has taken the lead in opposing the effort by CDOT and the Colorado Tolling Enterprise to widen a 12.5-mile stretch of C-470 with express toll lanes. Aurora officials are critical of the toll authority’s consideration of express toll lanes for Interstate 225 between South Parker Road and Interstate 70.
CDOT and toll-authority officials say express toll lanes offer motorists the option of buying a congestion-free commute. Tolls could be raised instantly to discourage use, maintaining a free flow of traffic, they say.
All tolling would be done electronically with transponders; there would be no toll plazas and no cash transactions.
By the end of the year, planners expect to choose between the tolled and non-tolled options for expanding U.S. 36, said Rick Pilgrim, a consultant leading the environmental study for CDOT and the Regional Transportation District. The decision would be put up for public comment.
If the express-toll option is selected, the existing lanes from I-25 to Boulder would remain free for motorists.
Adding pay-for-use lanes would return tolling to the Boulder Turnpike. It opened in January 1952 with 15-cent automobile tolls for the Boulder-to-Broomfield leg and an additional dime from Broomfield to Denver.
The turnpike became a free highway on Sept 14, 1967.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, Pilgrim said the environmental study will split its review of a Denver-to-Boulder/Longmont commuter rail line away from options for expanding U.S. 36.
While planners have yet to identify ways of paying for the highway expansion, the 43-mile $670 million train line from Union Station to Longmont is fully funded in RTD’s $4.7 billion FasTracks expansion.
Denver Post librarian Barbara Hudson contributed to this report.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-820-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
