Editorial: NoCo, Springs should reject competition for transportation funds

Hurry up and wait.

That expression — increasingly voiced by drivers along north Interstate 25 as they sit in traffic — could easily describe the gridlock over transportation funding at the state and federal levels.

Now, with Congress having passed the $305 billion Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, the nation has a five-year blueprint for highway funding.

President Obama signed the FAST Act into law Dec. 4. But already, some would pit regions of the state against each other in a desperate quest for any funds making their way to Colorado.

The Gazette in Colorado Springs editorialized Dec. 4 that, “In Colorado, widening of I-25 between Monument and Castle Rock should be the highest priority for the state’s share of these funds.” It added, “Competition for funds will be fierce throughout Colorado. Denver residents will mostly want improvements to Interstate 70 in the direction of ski country to the west. Fort Collins wants more lanes on I-25 in northern Colorado. But nothing will benefit our state more than speeding tourism and commerce between its two major metropolitan areas. For this to happen, Colorado Springs will need to lead the charge.”

Give us a break — or, rather, brake!

El Paso County includes 663,000 people, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Northern Colorado, including Larimer and Weld Counties, is not too far behind, at a combined 601,792, and constitutes one of the fastest-growing regions in the country.

Gross domestic product for the Colorado Springs metropolitan statistical area came in at $27.12 billion in 2014. The Fort Collins-Loveland and Greeley MSAs — Larimer and Weld counties — totaled $22.3 billion. Greeley was the fourth fastest-growing economy in the nation.

Colorado Springs and Northern Colorado constitute the southern and northern anchors of the Front Range economy. The two regions should collaborate to increase transportation funding, rather than elbow and trample one another like Black Friday shoppers.

A broad coalition of business leaders from throughout the state — including the CEO of the Colorado Springs Business Alliance and the chairman of the Fix North I-25 Business Coalition — get that point, signing a letter that encouraging Gov. John Hickenlooper to make transportation funding a priority for the 2016 legislative session.

Such cooperation heightens the chance that we can improve the I-70 corridor, I-25 north and, yes, I-25 between Castle Rock and Monument.

Competition will produce nothing more than gridlock.

on Facebook on LinkedIn