Even as an effort to put tolls on Interstate 70 to reduce congestion died in the state legislature, a study group made up of diverse interests said Thursday it has reached a general agreement that a solution should include highway improvements and some form of mass-transit automated guideway system.
The I-70 Corridor Collaborative Effort, made up of Colorado Department of Transportation representatives, local government officials, trucking and recreation business representatives and environmental activists, has been meeting since November, trying to forge a consensus on what transportation improvements are needed for the high-volume corridor.
Frisco town manager Michael Penny, a member of the group, said the general assessment now is that the I-70 mountain corridor needs interchange improvements, possible widening in places and other road enhancements, as well as a “strategic and concurrent” effort to develop “some type of advanced guideway system.”
The consensus still needs to be drafted into a document and, after that, specific projects would go through an environmental impact study.
Meanwhile, the plan to put tolls on I-70 collapsed into a heap of chuckles.
Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, a Colorado Springs Republican who sponsored the plan to charge $5 tolls near the Eisenhower Tunnel, laid over his bill until May 26 — Memorial Day. That effectively killed it because the legislature will be adjourned by then.
“When you’re sitting in the traffic jams that day,” McElhany said to his colleagues with a mischievous smile, “just think about the $5 you could have paid to be out of it.”
Sen. Chris Romer, a Denver Democrat who introduced the other tolling plan, said McElhany’s bill was one vote short in the Senate.
A handful of senators followed McElhany to the lectern, gleefully shoveling dirt on his bill.
“I’d be happy to support this as soon as we see a tollbooth on Monument Hill,” said Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, referring to the hill McElhany drives over on Interstate 25 to get home.
The end Thursday, though, will likely only bring an interlude in the I-70 tolling fistfight.
Romer said he will bring up the issue next year.
