Supporters of extending HOV/HOT lanes on U.S. 36 are worried that a needed federal loan for the project could be endangered if the mood of fiscal restraint that emerged from last week’s election targets remaining elements of the Obama administration’s stimulus program.
Earlier this year, the Colorado Department of Transportation won a $10 million stimulus grant for U.S. 36 with the hope that it could leverage a federal loan for the project of about $53 million.
But on Monday, Shaun Cutting, an official with the Colorado division of the Federal Highway Administration, told state and local officials working on the U.S. 36 project “you may have a whole new direction” in Washington in the wake of the Nov. 2 results.
Colorado’s High Performance Transportation Enterprise, which state legislators set up to explore tolling and other alternative financing options for transportation, is spending about $900,000 of the federal grant on a toll traffic and revenue study to determine whether toll revenue would be sufficient to back the federal loan.
Officials estimate it would cost $160 million to add an HOV/HOT lane in each direction between Pecos Street and Wadsworth Parkway. To add the extra express lanes between Pecos and Interlocken Loop, near the FlatIron shopping area, would cost $260 million.
HPTE already operates HOV/HOT lanes along Interstate 25 from downtown Denver to U.S. 36 and for a short distance up the Boulder Turnpike to Pecos.
To date, CDOT and the Regional Transportation District have each pledged $30 million for the express-lane extension, and the Denver Regional Council of Governments said it will contribute $25 million.
A study commissioned by HPTE showed that adding the extra HOV/HOT lanes for the 8.7-mile Pecos-to-Interlocken segment would generate about $1 million in tolls from single-occupant vehicles in 2015 — the year they would open — and about $3.9 million in 2020.
Such a revenue stream could support a federal loan that would yield a net $55 million for the project, the analysis showed.
The toll-revenue predictions put the project “still within the ballpark” in terms of feasibility, said HPTE director Mike Cheroutes, but he added that the express-lane venture will probably need additional financial commitments from its existing backers.
Officials also expect to assess options for securing a possible financial contribution from a public-private partnership that could become involved in the construction and operation of the U.S. 36 HOV/HOT extension project.
