Colorado politicians were very nice to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on his visit to Denver today.
With good reason.
LaHood’s department is weighing whether to funnel more than $1.5 billion from a variety of DOT programs to transportation projects around the state.
The Regional Transportation District hopes to get $1 billion from the federal agency for a public-private partnership that would build FasTracks trains to Denver International Airport and Arvada/Wheat Ridge.
Officials working on the redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station as a FasTracks transit hub want $300 million in loans from LaHood’s department. And communities throughout Colorado have bid for more than $500 million in so-called TIGER transportation grants that will be doled out by the secretary.
TIGER stands for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery and the money comes from the federal stimulus measure passed by Congress last year.
LaHood was in Denver to present the keynote address at a jobs forum sponsored by Sen. Michael Bennet at the University of Denver.
Nearly 200 local government and business leaders from around the state attended.
Chief among the supplicants was Denver Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper, who not only praised LaHood and his department at the jobs forum, but even cooked dinner for the transportation secretary at the mayor’s home on Thursday night. The menu was “surf and turf,” Hickenlooper said.
“It’s about relationships,” the mayor said of the spadework needed to win federal support for Colorado projects.
LaHood has $1.5 billion in TIGER funds to distribute nationally and he said decisions on which communities will get the money will be made by the end of this month.
Government and business officials in the U.S. 36 corridor have asked DOT for up to $200 million in TIGER money to extend high-occupancy vehicle/high-occupancy toll lanes on the Boulder Turnpike from Federal Boulevard to Boulder.
LaHood, who met with U.S. 36 coalition members on Friday, did not say whether the highway corridor is getting TIGER money.
But referring to “important projects” in metro Denver, including the train to DIA, LaHood said, “They are on our radar; we know how important they are.”
The secretary praised state and local leaders for preparing the studies and reviews that are prerequisites for winning federal transportation dollars.
LaHood, an ex-Republican congressman from central Illinois, said recovery from tough economic times requires bipartisanship and collaboration.
“We didn’t sit around crying in our beer,” LaHood said, recalling cooperation between local government leaders and Caterpillar Inc., a major employer in his home base of Peoria, when an earlier recession threatened jobs at Cat.
Hickenlooper said a community that passes a sales tax for transportation and makes “a significant investment itself” — as the Denver area did in approving FasTracks — should expect support from DOT.
Hickenlooper would not say whether LaHood or other federal officials have signaled that $1 billion will flow to the FasTracks public-private partnership, but of metro Denver’s relationship with Washington, he said: “We are very well served.”
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
