GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo.—The new director of the Colorado Department of Transportation says the state can’t solve the Interstate 70 mountain problem with pavement.
Russell George, a former House speaker and executive director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said an ongoing transportation study to deal with ski and summer vacation traffic must include a rail component.
In the past, CDOT officials have said rail is too expensive, as much as $7 or $8 billion.
“They will likely say (the department) can do highways, but it can do other things, too,” he said at a meeting Friday. “Yes, we need to have rail, we need more trails and transit. There’s no question in my mind that we want that.”
He said that means his department will have to find the money to build a mass transit line while meeting the state’s current transportation needs.
Communities along the road have opposed building more lanes, both because of frequent rock slides and snowstorms that would close them, and the noise. At times it is almost impossible for residents of one end of Clear Creek County to get to the other.
In 1973, when the Eisenhower Tunnel opened, traffic was less than 8,000. This year it averages 30,391 daily.
Vail tried imposing slower speed limits to reduce tire noise from the horde of vehicles, as well as installing sound barriers. Some residents installed air conditioning to cut summer noise—an oddity at 8,000-feet elevation.
George noted his department only has a $1.1 billion budget, and there are an additional $100 billion in near-term needs.
George said construction costs continue to rise, going up 15 to 30 percent annually.
“The general public will have to make the ultimate decision” on how the state’s transportation projects are funded, he said. “Transportation is the hardest issue to explain to everyday citizens, too.”
Colorado voters rejected funding for even a study of such a system in 2001.
George praised the Roaring Fork Valley for its success with passenger bus service and high-occupancy-vehicle lanes on Colorado Highway 82 between Aspen and its bedroom communities.
