Halfway home: Fall hearings next for I-25 study

The three-and-a-half-year process to assess the environmental impact of alternative transportation along Northern Colorado’s stretch of Interstate 25 is about half-way complete.

In October or early November, the Colorado Department of Transportation will likely announce a series of public meetings to gather input before creating a draft environmental impact statement, said Mindy Crane, CDOT’s media relations coordinator.

CDOT and consultants have created a set of eight detailed alternatives for improving I-25 roughly between Colorado Highways 66 and 14. These alternatives include various combinations of additional lanes, managed lanes and transit programs.

The meetings will present the eight package alternatives and will probably take place sometime between November and early January, Crane said.

Past public meetings held as part of the process have taken place in the major cities of the region – Greeley, Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont. Participants in the EIS process are looking to broaden the possibility for public input, Crane said. “What we potentially might do is hold those as well as some smaller ones so that we’re reaching out to some of the smaller communities.”

Public comments gathered from these meetings and other forums will be taken into account in preparing the draft environmental impact statement, Crane said. That draft will then be reviewed by the public, probably in mid-2006. From there, a preferred alternative will be selected and a final environmental impact statement prepared, with public hearings before and after.

The final decision on which alternative is chosen for improving I-25 is made by the federal highway administration, Crane said.

Effort critical to funding

The process may seem long but it is critical to obtaining federal and state transportation funding, said Vicky McLane, regional policy and programs manager for the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization. McLane is a member of the technical advisory committee for the North I-25 EIS effort.

“No federal or state transportation dollars can be spent on north I-25 until this EIS is done,” she explained.

McLane said that very specific and detailed federal requirements must be met in creating the environmental impact statement.

With burgeoning commercial and residential growth crowding the northern I-25 corridor it’s easy to make a case for the need for improvements to the highway. Already congested, CDOT traffic models show the interstate will become increasingly busy in the years to come.

According to the state transportation department’s estimates, the 2002 vehicle census of approximately 55,000 vehicles on average per day at I-25 and U.S. Highway 34 will grow to 140,000 per day by 2030. Traffic counts put the 2002 number at an average of 50,000 vehicles per day at the Mead exit from I-25.

Preparing the environmental impact statement has included a process of whittling down the many and varied potential transportation and transit alternatives that could be used to improve transportation in the north I-25 corridor.

“We’ve been looking at various transportation improvements from pretty much Wellington to Denver,” Crane said. “It’s kind of a wide range of things that we’re looking at.”

Some of those things – high-speed rail, for instance – have been eliminated from the mix. Other possibilities, such as commuter rail and addition of multiple highway lanes, remain.

Eight alternatives

The eight package alternatives to be presented this fall include:

• Widening I-25 from four general purpose lanes to eight between state Colorado Highways 66 (north Longmont) and 14 (north Fort Collins). This alternative includes bus service operating in general purpose lanes between Denver and Fort Collins.

• Adding two new toll lanes in each direction on I-25 between E-470 (Broomfield) and Colorado 14. Existing lanes would remain free of charge.

• Adding two high-occupancy toll lanes in each direction. High-occupancy toll lanes are free to vehicles with multiple passengers. Solo drivers can use these lanes if they pay a toll. This alternative would include bus rapid transit service between Denver and Fort Collins.

• Adding two limited-access lanes in each direction from Colorado 66 to Colorado 14. One limited-access lane would be added from E-470 to Colorado 66.

• Widening I-25 to six general purpose lanes and adding two managed lanes (one in each direction). This package completes widening of the interstate to six lanes from Highway 66 to Highway 14.

• Widening the interstate to six lanes from Colorado 66 to Colorado 14 and adding commuter rail service from Fort Collins to Colorado 119 (Del Camino) along the west side of I-25. From there, commuter rail passengers could potentially hook up with the FasTracks rail system in the north metro Denver area.

• Widening the interstate to six lanes from Colorado 66 to Colorado 14 and adding commuter rail between Fort Collins and Longmont along the existing Burlington Northern Santa Fee rail line and including commuter bus service in all general purpose lanes.

• Adding high-occupancy vehicle lanes in each direction between U.S. Highway 36 and Colorado 14. This also includes commuter rail along BNSF rail lines, bus rapid transit service in the high-occupancy lanes and commuter bus service in the general-purpose lanes.

The EIS process is only a step along the journey toward construction, Crane said. “We have to have funding before construction can begin. Right now it is so difficult to say when we’re going to get projects to the point of construction because we’re so short on funding. … So, we’re looking down the road a ways for construction to even begin.”

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