I took a ride on Interstate 25 Wednesday morning, and I have to say I was dazzled. In fact, it was such a thrill, I’m thinking of moving to Parker so I can get my money’s worth.
OK, that’s a joke, but after fleeing the southeast suburbs after 11 years of exasperating commutes on I-25, I consider myself something of a connoisseur of highways, and this one is as full-
bodied and audacious as they come.
From the moment my pedal hit the metal and I merged into traffic, the vision of broad new highway lanes, off- ramps and on-ramps was breathtaking.
The effect of the miles of fabricated concrete walls that form a towering canyonlike echo chamber for roaring semis, bleating motorcycles and general highway hum was deafening.
The aroma: subtle but bold.
In other words, for maximum enjoyment, keep your windows closed and the stereo turned up.
As for the grand cosmic experience for the thousands of people driving solo on the new highway, well, Denver commuters can be forgiven if they confuse the Mile High City with Dallas or even San Jose.
With one key exception: On a clear day when the brown cloud isn’t too bad, you can still see the mountains.
Twelve-Lane Bill should be so proud.
Completed early, allowing Gov. Owens to remove the last traffic cone before his term expires – and before gas prices hit $4 a gallon – the sprawling highway project is his legacy.
So is the debt.
But it’s only money. And for the moment, at least traffic on the highway is moving a whole lot better than it did during the Romer administration, which tried repeatedly to figure out a way to widen the road but kept getting mired in the tedious business of paying for it.
Voters just hate that.
Owens’ answer was to let the kids pay for most of it, and in 1999, voters endorsed that idea enthusiastically.
They approved one ballot measure to let the state borrow up to $1.7 billion for highway projects, including the southeast corridor project, and another to allow the Regional Transportation District to borrow $457 million for the southeast light-rail line.
Owens was none too happy with the light-rail idea, but if he wanted to get his highway built, he had to suck it up and give mass transit his blessing. There was no way the highway alone was going to meet the ozone limits of the Clean Air Act, which back then was still enforced.
And given the choice between breathing and driving, a slim majority of voters usually can be counted on to endorse continued respiration, even in Colorado.
So Owens stumped for the ambitious highway and light-rail project, promising – as the campaign messages hammered home – that the debt would be repaid with NO NEW TAXES!
Technically, that was true.
It’s being repaid with old taxes.
Much of the money from the federal gasoline tax that used to pay for highway maintenance is going toward paying off T-REX debt.
That means, of course, that the general highway maintenance that otherwise would be financed with all the gas-tax money is not fully funded, so the kids have to pay for that, too, in things like higher college tuition because, for years, money was shifted from higher education to highways.
Lucky for us, most of them pay so little attention to what’s going on, they’ll never notice. And even if they try to figure out the bottom line for the sweet ride from Parker to downtown, it’s tricky.
Heather Copp, chief financial officer for the state Department of Transportation, said the financing for T-REX was bundled along with several other planned highway projects. About $1.5 billion was borrowed between 2000 and 2004 to pay for all of them.
With interest, Copp estimated that the bill to taxpayers will come to at least $2.1 billion, payable every time we fill up at the pump. It’s scheduled to be retired sometime in 2017.
So enjoy the ride. And thank the kids.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
