JOHNSTOWN — Towns and cities flanking Interstate 25 north of Denver for years have clamored for someone to do something, anything, to help relieve the traffic-choked, crumbling highway.
“After seven years of commuting, I’ve seen it just get worse and worse,” said , whose 45-mile commute to Denver starts at 5:30 a.m. and ends 12 hours later. “Even on the weekends, it’s just still bumper to bumper. It’s a bad situation, and it’s only going to get worse unless local, state and federal officials get their acts together.”
In the biggest move in the 26-year history of the its planning committee approved this month a proposal to put all of the $13 million that’s in its Surface Transportation Program into improving I-25.
The I-25 funding would be spread out from 2016 through 2019. The committee unanimously voted to help fund I-25 projects rather than split it among multiple smaller projects in local communities.
Loveland Mayor Cecil Gutierrez said the proposal still has to be voted on by the entire planning group.
Specifically, the $13 million would be put toward building a third lane on a 12-mile stretch of I-25 from U.S. 34 at Loveland to Colorado 14 at Fort Collins. The money also would help fund a truck pullover lane on southbound I-25 at Berthoud Hill, which is south of the Berthoud exit near the Valley Dirt Riders motocross track.
Both are huge trouble spots on a section of the interstate that draws 79,600 vehicles a day, said Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway, who proposed the idea.
“This is the first step, I believe, in making substantial improvements to the highway and bringing in other resources to help fully fund this corridor,” said Conway.
According to a 2011 Colorado Department of Transportation study, continuing the interstate’s third lane in each direction between north of Longmont and Fort Collins, along with other improvements, would cost $1.2 billion. And all that may not get done until
The $13 million would go directly to CDOT, which certainly appreciates the offer, said Jared Fiel, agency spokesman for the northern Colorado region.
“For them to throw $13 million over next four years only onto I-25 is unprecedented,” Fiel said. “It’s really a show of support, and we can certainly use it to leverage other funding from other sources as they come available.”
One source could include a potential public-private partnership similar to the recent agreement that allows a private company to collect tolls and conduct maintenance work on U.S. 36 between Boulder and Denver.
“We’re looking at all sources to help with I-25,” Fiel said.
CDOT, for instance, is eyeing $35 million from its of Maintenance and Partnerships program to fix and expand the Crossroads interchange off I-25 — and near the Fort Collins-Loveland airport — as well as the Berthoud Hill truck lane, over the next four years.
“However, all the other proposed projects, like the managed lane from (Colorado 66) to (Colorado 14), will require additional money and time to complete,” said Johnny Olson, CDOT regional director.
He added that CDOT will first consult the North Front Range group before spending any of the $13 million.
“We have to see how this funding would effect us locally, on our local roads,” Gutierrez said. “It’s not a done deal, but we have to be creative, because we’ve got a heckuva problem with this highway now.”
Almost 700,000 people will call northern Colorado home by 2020, and the highway itself has a structural life of about 10 more years, say officials.
Paul Tate — owner of CB Shop and More, which sits next to Johnson’s Corner, just off I-25 near the Johnstown exit, remembers seeing only about three or four cars an hour traveling on the highway when he opened his shop nearly 30 years ago.
“Now it’s just nuts,” Tate said. “And if there is any kind of backup anywhere, even on the exit going into Loveland, it can turn the highway into a parking lot in just minutes.”
Romanowski said the $13 million pledged is just a “Band-Aid approach” that eats up funding that local communities need.
“What’s needed is nonpartisan cooperation to get some things done up here,” he said.
“All we’ve heard is talk, talk, talk. And we are getting tired of that. We want some action.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/montewhaley
