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Oct 24, 2007 11:37 am US/Mountain
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Where Are We Now? Public Awaits I-70 Answers
Public Comment Period Will Resume In Colorado
Written by Andrea Lopez
by Andrea Lopez
FRISCO, Colo. (CBS4) ―
The Colorado Department of Transportation began seriously studying the I-70 corridor back in 1999 when growing congestion problems made both CDOT and the public aware of the fact that something needed to be done to help fix the "choke points" and to lessen the amount of time drivers spent sitting in traffic lines in and out of the mountains. It began working on what was called the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). That document, which was published in 2004, basically outlines congestion problems, future traffic projections, possible solutions and their impacts, as well as costs for those solutions or what are commonly referred to as "alternatives."
"The study on the I-70 corridor really started seven or eight years ago, and has taken a lot longer than anybody expected, I think, to get to the finish line," said Executive Director Russell George. "When I came on to CDOT earlier this year, the I-70 corridor was one of those pending environmental impact studies that really mattered to us and needed to be finished."
After the PEIS came out, it was followed by a public comment period. The next step for CDOT was to pick an alternative and publish the final PEIS. That would basically tell the public what was going to be done and when.
However, that final PEIS never came out. The public has been asking and asking when it will finally see a chosen solution for I-70. We are now closer to an answer.
"It looked to me like everyone had grown pretty weary and we were at a place where it wasn't clear where we were going and could we get to a finish line," said George. "But it was so important that we get to a finish line and try to do it soon, that I looked for ways to gear it back up. So we decided at CDOT to go back to all of the people in the corridor and all the interested parties in the corridor and say, if we'll back up a little bit, give it a fresh start, are you willing? And can I set a deadline? I'll put more resources in. Let's try one more time and see if we can't get to the finish line."
What George did, is he re-opened the public comment period. The meetings will start in November and be facilitated by the Keystone Center. They should wrap up in the spring. They're basically an opportunity for people to tell CDOT what they think should be done with I-70.
"What we're hoping with having this facilitative process is that a couple things will happen," said Dr. Florine Raitano, Director of the I-70 Coalition. "One is that CDOT and the transportation community will actually hear what the communities have been saying -- their preferences and their hopes and dreams all along from the very beginning of this process. The second thing that we hope will come out of it really will be a consensus based preferred alternative that everyone can say, well, you know, maybe from my perspective it isn't the absolute best, but you know we can live with it. We're really hoping that's what comes out of this process."
"We think that they [CDOT] have not given, up until now, adequate consideration to the stakeholders concerns," said Idaho Springs Mayor Dennis Lundberry. "Now, with the new CDOT executive director, we're told that they're going to reopen that public input process and deal more with the stakeholders, and we're very glad to see that."
During this public comment period, CDOT will put all of the original alternatives back onto the table for examination. They had, until recently, been whittled down to about a half dozen. George said he hopes that a clear consensus will emerge, making it that much clearer to CDOT what should be done.
"I think at this point CDOT is very interested in a multi-module solution," said CDOT Program Engineer Brian Pinkerton. "And so I would not be surprised at all, at the end of this collaboration process, if we have a highway component and a transit component."
"Many folks in the high country, they want to see a solution that is long term in approach," said State Representative Dan Gibbs. "Many folks that I've spoken to, they want to make sure that we have a multi-module solution, so that's looking at improvements to the existing highway, but other options whether it's a bus system or a train system. I think a combination of improvements to the highway and some type of a mass transit solution will be the solution in the long run. This is a long term process, the solutions for I-70 will not be made overnight."
Some have expressed concern that enough time has passed, and that we need to make a decision and act on it soon.
"Now is the time to act," said President and CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA Rob Perlman. "We've been studying the issue for a long time and we need to recognize that it's a challenge and take steps now to solve the problem…we need to be prepared to make those hard decisions -- or at least the Colorado Department of Transportation needs to be prepared. It's a problem that we face as residents and now is the time to take the next steps toward solutions and be prepared to make some difficult decisions and start solving the problem…our reputation is at stake."
"As these studies are going forward, and they're costly because of the EIS process, we've got to be mindful of the fact that the clock is ticking -- that this does have an economic consequence," said President of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Joe Blake. "It could be ten years before you see any construction going on up there. The construction costs alone are going up. So, this is not something that once it's signaled, let's go forward; that we're going to see an immediate result. We aren't. It's going to take a long time for this thing to be completed. I just think that the important part of it is to understand that there are economic consequences every day that are getting backed up and backed up because we're not moving forward."
Until a solution is reached, we may see some more minor improvements on I-70 at some of the pinch points or places where traffic tends to get backed up. For example, ramp meters have been installed on US 40 where it merges into the eastbound lanes of I-70. This is to try and help regulate the merging traffic and ultimately alleviate some congestion in this area.
"We're hoping, out of this collaboration process, that projects will be identified that have consensus that can begin to address the problems today," said Pinkerton. "It might be some projects that make an improvement at an interchange, it might be an environmental project that clears up water or allows wildlife to get across the highway safely. But we're hoping that we can get consensus on some stuff that we can get moving on in the near future, in the next two to three years. Smaller improvements that are safety oriented or environmentally oriented, if we have consensus with the communities, we could probably move on this today."
Once CDOT makes a decision about what to do with I-70, the Federal Highway Administration will have to approve it.
"That process is going to take another nine months to 12 months to get a record of decision issued from federal highways," said Raitano. "It's not going to get approved unless they have a comfort level that the public input, the public process, and the process that we're in now has been a good, solid, open process."
"The decision, in the end, is going to be made by CDOT and our partner -- federal highways," said George. "I want the decision to have such popular appeal that all I have to do is say I accept what the consensus group has given us."
It may take ten years before we see any major construction on the mountain corridor. It's a slow process to make a decision about the future of I-70, but it is a process that is moving forward. Some say there is no other option; we can't do nothing.
"If nothing major happens, people will just continue to get more frustrated," said Lundberry. "I think you'll see people shifting the times that they use to go to the mountains; there will be more traffic during the week. And if they don't make major improvements the congestion will continue; the congestion will continue to grow."
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