A foreign-owned toll-road operator agreed Wednesday to spend at least $800 million on the 99-year lease of the Northwest Parkway – with the expectation that the highway will complete the beltway around metro Denver with an extension to Interstate 70 and C-470.
A consortium led by the Portuguese toll-road firm Brisa Auto- Estradas will pay the Northwest Parkway highway authority $503 million to buy out all the existing bond debt of the 4-year-old toll highway.
The consortium will pay an additional $100 million if the parkway is extended and $200 million in operating expenses.
The deal gives the new operator the right to raise the toll for cars traveling the full 9 miles of the current highway to $3 when the deal is final in October. The full-length toll now is $2.
The toll would be capped at $3 until the end of 2009.
Beginning in 2010, the maximum toll will increase each year based on inflation, an increase in consumer purchasing power or by 2 percent – whichever is greatest, according to the deal.
In addition to the payment of $503 million, the Brisa team has pledged to pay $60 million toward the extension of the Northwest Parkway from its current western terminus to a location roughly near Colorado 93 and West 64th Avenue.
An agreement between the Broomfield City Council and the parkway’s board of directors, approved Tuesday night, identifies Brisa’s ultimate goal as completion of the beltway, with the highway stretching to the I-70/ C-470 junction.
Broomfield is one of three jurisdictions with voting rights on the parkway board. The others are the city of Lafayette and Weld County.
The agreement includes a clause that appears to prevent any other transportation improvements in the full 11.3-mile Northwest Parkway corridor if they would lead to a reduction in toll revenues for Brisa’s group.
The proposed extension to Colorado 93 would put the toll road close to Golden’s doorstep. City officials and residents there oppose extending the highway through the community.
Northwest Parkway executive director Steve Hogan said that the highway authority, Broomfield and others in the northwest area have consistently promoted the beltway extension.
