Integration, independence, I-25 on the itinerary of transportation insiders

WINDSOR — A discussion among transportation officials and others Tuesday focused on how to merge local concerns with regional and state work, as well as the broader aims of federal policymakers, and how to pay for all of it.

Participants in a BizWest CEO Roundtable on Transportation at the Better Business Bureau offices just off Interstate 25 in Windsor put serious time into considering that particular roadway and a myriad of connector roads that bring a living stream of commuters onto the thoroughfare every day. Also getting attention: an airport system growing with a vastly expanding population, housing affordability issues related to that growth and to driving in the region, and the financial implications for all of it.

Climate change got attention as well.

Interstate 25

The earliest and longest part of the interaction focused on Interstate 25.

“What is I-25 to the state of Colorado?” asked Johnny Olson, director of transportation and operations for Horrocks Engineers Inc., a Utah-based company with local offices in Greeley. “It’s a backbone; it’s important to us in this room and on-screen and to people in the state.”

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He said “allowing for increases,” a current $1.8 billion in project needs could end up closer to $2.5 billion.

Heather Paddock, Region 4 Colorado Department of Transportation director, broke it down a bit: “$350 million for Segment 5 [from Colorado Highway 56 to Colorado Highway 60], $150 million for Segment 4 [E-470 to Colorado Highway 66] to finish the express lane … ”

In seconds, she’d ticked off “$500 million to $800 million” in need, which still excluded several projects.

District Five state transportation commissioner Kathleen Bracke added that I-25 isn’t just “a Rocky Mountain connection issue; it connects our economies to the rest of the West” and CDOT “and local communities have been investing” in the work. “That’s the story I tell around the state.”

Sandra Hagen Solin, CEO of Denver-based government affairs and lobbying firm Capitol Solutions, a trade name for ResPublica Inc., and a the lobbyist for the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance, said, “I-25 is a critical corridor … it moves people and goods and should secure more federal funding.”

NCLA is a lobbying organization for the Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland chambers of commerce and for the Upstate Colorado economic-development organization.

Growth

Over the next 10 years, Northern Colorado is expecting a lot more of those people and goods.

U.S. Census figures show that Larimer and Weld counties have been among the fastest-growing Colorado counties by population growth rate over the previous 10 years, with significant growth projected over the coming decades.

More people in a place means more people on its roads — and not just I-25.

Ann Hutchison, president and CEO of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, said, “We are talking about larger regional solutions … but what about the connector roads, the local solutions?”

She said connector roads need work as well, and “we don’t have a strong picture for that regional plan or dollars” to pay for it.

Mark Jackson, Loveland public works director, acknowledged “the focus and primary need are these massive interstate projects [that] sometimes come at the expense of local.”

He said because of the “pandemic and economic decline, people are looking inward again” and toward their home cities.

The intersection of federal interstates, state transportation work and local needs elicited threads of diverging and merging lines throughout the morning meeting. On one hand, people may live in one city and work in another, and several participants cited the “live-work-play” mantra cities invoke to encourage their residents to focus time, talents and treasure on the singular municipal offerings.

Leaving one’s community creates congestion on roads … “vehicle miles traveled” is one metric policy makers watch to see where dollars will get doled out: More of them could mean an area’s need is greater — more wear and tear on the highway — but also increases greenhouse gases or air pollution generally, so state and federal officials want those miles to go down. But how does that work when a city’s population is going to double? And where do electric vehicles fit into it?

But participants also noted the reverse of the above: Transportation can’t possibly be a local issue.

Jackson said, “Transportation problems don’t respect lines on a map: Greeley’s issues are Fort Collins’ and Loveland’s.”

Bracke said “lines on a map” aren’t helpful here and cited the adage “the best transportation plans are a good land-use plan” and said this could mean more transit-oriented development — walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, which, “the local communities can be doing.”

Couple that with regional transportation plans, growing local transportation networks to match larger projects, add in multimodal transportation solutions and maybe there’s progress to come for moving about after all.

Participants said housing, jobs, and other community elements are part of this and transportation makes it all go.

Airports

Jason Licon, director of the Northern Colorado Regional Airport, and Cooper Anderson, who has the same role for Greeley-Weld County Airport, exchanged notes on population growth effects.

Anderson said population boosts in Weld County have increased his interaction with residents. “In 2010, we might’ve had two or three [noise] complaints in a month,” which is no longer true. “The issue for us is the increase in population and an increase in air traffic.”

He said the airport’s hangar waiting list is up to two years long.

“We’re working with our local partners to figure out a good method to accommodate some of this growth,” he said. “What is the new Northern Colorado going to be?”

He noted that the airports in the region are “in the top five in the state for operations, and we [he and Licon] want to tackle how it works” for our cities.

Licon noted his facility’s new remote tower and new air service. Avelo Airlines began flying to Los Angeles County the day after the Roundtable. The new services are part of how “transportation evolves as a network … we’ve been focused on multimodal, facing the challenges Cooper mentioned.”

He said the airport can be a transportation hub, working to find appropriate land use as development occurs around the airport, working with residents, finding nearby uses less-sensitive to noise, “and being good neighbors.”

A new terminal is also a future focus.

This requires planning, Anderson and Licon said. This could include, Licon noted, the United Airlines bus service from his facility to Denver International Airport, which gets cars off the road in exchange for a single bus that takes them to their flight.

He said, “part of our vision is to identify areas where we can supplement some of the aviation demand, provide an option for folks who would like to travel: partnerships instead of putting more cars down I-25.”

Costs

In part of the discussion of I-25, Heather Paddock said, “about $900 million in recent years” had been put toward its projects.

Some $62 million came from local sources, $150 million from federal, and “the rest was state.”

Several parts of the work, she added, “aren’t funded.”

Governments were seen as crucial to any long-term solution. State and federal policy comes to a place at a price and on a longer timeframe. Denver and Washington, D.C., are often the deciding factors in whether the fare gets paid for Northern Colorado projects with substantial price tags.

Mark Jackson said, “Funding’s always top of mind, especially for large infrastructure.”

Participants cited Colorado Senate Bill 260, with some reservations and exceptions, as a massive step forward in funding transportation, breaking decades of impasse and bringing many different parties and priorities to an agreement, even if somewhat tenuous.

Gov. Jared Polis signed it into law in June, aiming to raise $5.4 billion over 10 years via general fund transfers and taxes. The money is for transportation projects and combating air pollution.

Bracke and Olson noted pitfalls and possibilities in public-private partnerships. Bracke said past highway work has used this model and “it’s been a very successful approach … but we can’t just jump into a P3 because it’s exciting; we have to make sure the numbers work.”

Olson said private companies have the cash, can efficiently get projects bonded, reduce state debt and generally make up for shortfalls on the civic side. “Annually we’re about $150 million short” and need to fill that gap.

Olson’s company is working with Roadis USA Holding LLC on an unsolicited bid to finance some I-25 improvements.

“Without some assistance from local governments or public private partnerships, we will never catch up on our transportation system,” Olson said.

Bracke said projects nationally can be a guide to future work “and the numbers need to speak for themselves. All solutions need to be on the table but we need to learn from what has happened.”

One specific: greater openness in some deals, the lack of which “created a backlash against P3,” she cautioned. “The process has to be open and transparent for all the partners involved.”

She agreed on the need for casting a wider net. “Regional funding … the state has to come to the table” as well.

Solin sought federal focus on interstates, making the talk a roundtrip back to I-25.

“We believe the interstates should be a primary priority,” she said, “and get federal funds as part of the federal interstate system.”

This means more “side conversations with our congressional delegation as things start to unfold at the federal level.”

Suzette Mallette,  executive director of the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, said potential federal money could be coming from the new infrastructure bill.

“If it’s packaged, it’s going to come as a large chunk of stimulus” in addition to current funding, she said, and states will be able to decide where that money goes.

Then comes the perennial catch: Got the gold? Make the rules.

For transportation this means compliance and action — often in the form of reductions of one kind or another — related to greenhouse gases, climate change and vehicle miles traveled.

BizWest’s CEO Roundtable on Transportation was part of a regular slate of meetings among executives in various industries. This event was conducted at the BBB Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming and supported by sponsors. Sponsor attendees included Darin Atteberry, Elevations Credit Union; Drew Mattox, Plante Moran; and Ashley Cawthorn, Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP.

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