State highway officials are taking the traditional path in rebuilding C-470 in the southwest Denver metro area.
Rather than a public-private partnership between the state and a private firm, be widened for toll lanes as a publicly funded, design-build project.
That means a company will bid to design and construct the improvements to C-470 but will not manage the highway nor collect tolls. That is how most highway projects in Colorado have been done in the past.
But recently, states are leaning more on public-private partnerships, or P3s. In those arrangements, a company builds the highway and stays on to manage it and collect tolls.
A P3 is being used to rebuild between Denver and Boulder, a move criticized by some who say private firms don’t have the best interests of the public in mind.
But officials this week said a public-private pact wouldn’t fit well with C-470 plans.
“Our analysis shows that due to limited size and scope of the C-470 project, the state does not appear to receive any additional value in using a P3,” said Tim Gagen, chair of the Transportation Enterprise board of directors.
The HPTE is an arm of the Colorado Department of Transportation. The HPTE board will recommend that C-470 be a design-build project to the state’s Transportation Commission, which has the final say on road projects.
The $230 million C-470 widening project will add toll lanes in each direction and rebuild various on-ramps along C-470 between I-25 west to about Kipling Parkway.
The toll lanes will be “priced to provide a reliable travel time” and will be in addition to the existing four general purpose lanes that will require no user fees, said CDOT spokeswoman Megan Castle.
CDOT has identified $112 million in local, state and federal funding for the C-470 project. The remaining $118 million will be funded by toll revenue bonds and other sources, Castle said.
HPTE will issue the toll revenue bonds, and all future toll revenues will be used to maintain and improve the C-470 corridor.
Construction is scheduled to begin the summer of 2016 and completed by December 2017.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/montewhaley
