Superslab : Front Range Tollway

Front Range Transportation

When it rains it pours. Both the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post today were full of articles on transportation in Denver and the rest of Colorado.

Connecting Broomfield, Lafayette, and Thorton

The first was the article on the Northwest Parkway. For those who aren't familiar with it, basically it's part of the beltway around Metro Denver that connects I-25 and US36 in the NW corner. The 11-mile tollway was completed in 2003 for a cost of $416 million.

I-25 HOT Lanes

The second article I caught was more important to me. A little while back I mentioned the talk of building a train on the I70 corridor. I think the better solution is 3-person HOT lanes and beefed bus service in addressing the problem. The congestion occurs on the weekends, the very time we have all sorts of buses in the Denver Metro going unused. Anyway, the article mentions that in the first 3 months the HOT lanes on I25 had already collected the dollar amount of tolls they had projected for the first year. Does anyone know what they're going to do with the tolls they collect? Build more HOT lanes? Fund more transit?

Prairie Falcon Parkway Express

For many years there has been talk about building a new freeway in Colorado to link Ft. Collins and Pueblo while by-passing big population centers like Denver and Colorado Springs. It could make traveling through Colorado much easier. It will also include new right-of-ways for utilities and railroads. One thing I haven't heard talked about this project is the potential it has for ensuring that a new corridor is built from day one configured for transit. This will be especially important on the sections by fast growing Ft. Collins and the fastest growing metro on the Front Range, Greeley.

Some legislation was passed last fall that had those against the project thinking they had killed it. Then yesterday the new company, Prairie Falcon Parkway Express, announced they were moving forward with it according to the new law passed last fall. One of the articles on it can be found at the Rocky Mountain News, here.

The corridor stretches from north of Fort Collins to south of Pueblo, ranging up to 30 miles east of Interstate 25, the congested Front Range freeway the toll road seeks to relieve.

One of the blogs for those against the project can be found at this URL : http://frontrangetollroad.blogspot.com/