Boulder Turnpike expansion moves forward – What about I-25?
August 20th, 2009
Is it any wonder that north metro area residents have an inferiority complex when it comes to transportation funding? Our highways are continually neglected and ignored by CDOT and oftentimes even our own area politicians. We have watched C-470 bring relief to the southwest metro area, T-Rex fix the disaster through the central part of Denver and the Boulder Turnpike has received many upgrades over the years.
What about I-25 north of I-76 through Northglenn, Thornton, Westminster and Broomfield?
Just recently we were promised more funding as a result of the federal stimulus package. The end result, Thornton will be receiving a traffic metering light at I-25 and 84th Ave.
The state of Colorado received $560,000,000. What is Thornton’s take? $125,000. That’s right. The state’s sixth largest city receives the benefit of less than 1% of the federal stimulus highway funds.
Now we read today about further grand improvements on the slate for the US-36 / Boulder Turnpike corridor. Why is it that the cities in that corridor can have their highways improved multiple times and yet we cannot get an additional lane on I-25 north of 84th Avenue? The situation is asinine.
Congressman Jared Polis who represents both the US-36 and the I-25 corridors said, “Highway 36 is my top highway to fund.” Hmph. Why am I not surprised? Why would we have any reason to think things would really change?
Perhaps even if 1/10th of the effort north area cities and politicos are spending on the FasTracks boondoggle was spent on securing improvements to I-25 we might actually have some progress.
In the news:
- Denver Post: U.S. 36 alliance sets federal bid of $200 million for upgrades
- Boulder Daily Camera: Hunt is on for U.S. 36 improvement money
Hardly surprising. Our mayor and city council are so infatuated with FasTracks that they can’t see the forest for the trees. Even if the rail project is completed I-25 will remain the dominate way residents will travel. Why ignore it and instead take steps to fix the problem.
The automobile will be going the way of the dinosaur sooner rather than later. Better to plan for the future now by spending money on the systems (like rail) that will be our primary mode of transportation.
So we have to spend $8 billion to have a ‘key feature’, Andy? That makes no sense. I prefer to realize that we are spending $8 billion for a rail system that will do nothing to improve the traffic situation, will generate more pollution per rider mile than a car does, and saddles taxpayers with a debt that will never end.
As long as Adams County is lumped in with Boulder in the same congressional district, Adams will always get the short end of the stick. We are unable to ‘out vote’ the Boulder liberals and get someone that more closely represents our interests as we see them. This is the latest example in a long line of representatives that only represent the Free Republic of Boulder.
BIKE PATH along us 36!!!!!!