Businesses and local governments along the U.S. 36 corridor are hoping for an injection in funding from the federal stimulus program to finally get some relief for commuters in the busy highway between Denver and Boulder.
Through the Colorado Department of Transportation, a U.S. 36 coalition is applying for as much as $200 million in federal grant money.
The funds would be used to extend high-occupancy vehicle/high-occupancy toll lanes from Federal Boulevard and U.S. 36 to the Interlocken Loop exit on the highway near the FlatIron Crossing shopping mall.
Applications for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER grant program, which has a total of $1.5 billion in stimulus money to distribute nationally, are due Tuesday. TIGER stands for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery.
Planners have finished a six-year, $25 million environmental study of proposed transportation improvements for the 18-mile-long U.S. 36 corridor, and it recommends highway expansion and bridge reconstruction carrying a total price tag of $1.3 billion.
CDOT expects to have $711 million of that total over time, but most will not be available until 2021 at the earliest, according to 36 Commuting Solutions, a business/government coalition working for improvements in the corridor.
In the meantime, the coalition hopes to blend either $200 million or $100 million in TIGER funds with about $60 million in seed money from CDOT and RTD to get construction underway on 36.
“We really need this money,” Audrey DeBarros, executive director of 36 Commuting Solutions, said of the federal grants.
If the corridor gets the $200 million, planners can couple those federal funds with $30 million each from CDOT and RTD to add a new HOV/ HOT lane in each direction 8.7 miles from Federal Boulevard to the Interlocken exit, according to a project analysis.
If only $100 million is won, it and the local CDOT/RTD contribution of $60 million will allow extension of the the HOV/HOT lanes 6.8 miles from Federal to the Broomfield exit at Wadsworth Parkway.
RTD will contribute a total of $208 million in FasTracks money for U.S. 36 improvements, including those that aid bus service in the corridor. But the bulk of that FasTracks funding is not yet available, RTD officials say.
Federal officials are expected to select the grant winners in January.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
