Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority officials said Monday that they are talking to Madrid-based construction firm Isolux Corsán about financing, designing, building and operating the 10-mile toll road in Jefferson County.
For a number of years, the authority has touted the toll highway as one of the final links in the beltway around metro Denver.
The Jefferson Parkway, which is estimated to cost $204 million, would run from Colorado 128 near Jefferson County’s airport just off U.S. 36 in Broomfield to Colorado 93 north of Golden near West 64th Avenue.
Isolux Corsán said it operates more than 1,000 miles of toll highways under concession agreements in Spain, Mexico, Brazil and India.
Brisa, an international highway concessionaire based in Portugal, leased the Northwest Parkway in the north metro area in 2007 for 99 years in a deal valued at about $603 million.
That transaction called for targeting $100 million of the deal price for constructing a link between the Northwest Parkway, which now ends just north of U.S. 36, and the north end of the Jefferson Parkway at Colorado 128 when the new toll road is constructed.
In the past, some officials and residents in Golden and Boulder County have criticized plans to build the Jefferson Parkway.
More recently, Jefferson County officials have worked with counterparts from Golden, the city of Boulder and Boulder County to forge agreements that would dampen opposition to the toll highway.
Golden has been concerned about the dumping of Jefferson Parkway traffic onto Colorado 93 and U.S. 6 in the city.
Golden leaders have been talking with Jeffco officials about an agreement that would make improvements to 93 and 6 in the city but also preserve those roads as local four-lane thoroughfares with speed limits of no more than 45 mph.
Golden Mayor Jacob Smith said Monday that discussions are ongoing with Jeffco officials on the city’s demands, and Smith said he is hopeful that a settlement can be reached.
But he added Golden is prepared to go to court to try to block the Jefferson Parkway if negotiations aimed at “protecting” the city from possible deleterious effects of the toll road fail.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
