Reconciling Highway Investments With Climate Plans

The Colorado Department of Transportation has plans to expand highways, but it also has a mandate to reduce emissions from the state's transportation systems. Is it possible to do both?

2 minute read

May 19, 2021, 12:00 PM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Colorado Interstate

photo-denver / Shutterstock

The state of Colorado is searching for ways to reconcile two potentially conflicting goals: expanding its highways at the request of commuters and industry, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions 90 percent by 2050. 

An article by Nathaniel Minor details the crossroads of transportation planning facing the state. Summarizing the potential conflict thusly:

The Colorado Department of Transportation has plans to rebuild and expand Interstate 270 in the next 10 years. But department officials say they have shifted from expanding highways as quickly as money allows to a “fix it first” approach, mixed with expanding transit and pedestrian infrastructure.

According to Minor, the state has two strategies for reducing vehicle miles traveled and lessening the need for new and wider highways in the state.

The first, currently in the works at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, would require large employers in the Denver metro and the northern Front Range to develop plans that reduce the number of workers who drive to work alone. Suggested strategies include incentivizing public transit use, carpooling and working from home.

The second could shape the type of transportation projects that are built. It would require the state to create emissions budgets that CDOT and metropolitan planning organizations like the Denver Regional Council of Governments would have to meet.

Much of the Colorado Department of Transportation's current planning and engineering work is dictated by a $5 billion, ten-year transportation "strategic project pipeline" approved in 2020. Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, is quoted in the article saying that the ten-year plan reflects a shift in planning philosophy for the state.

Minor shares Toor's insights: "The few highway expansions in CDOT’s current plan take a 'far more thoughtful approach' than previous incarnations, Toor said. Overall, he said, the plan strikes a more environmentally friendly balance between maintenance and expansion."

Specifics on that thoughtful approach are included in the source article, along with more insight into future planning efforts that could determine the success of Colorado's emissions reductions goals. Minor also provides insight into the political debate surrounding the state's efforts to reconcile highway spending with emission reduction goals. Environmentalists, for example, aren’t convinced the state is doing enough to remove emissions from the state's transportation systems.

Wednesday, May 19, 2021 in Colorado Public Radio

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Interior of Place Versailles mall in Montreal, Canada.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units

Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

May 22, 2025 - CBC

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 28, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Rendering of California High-Speed Rail station with bullet train.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself

The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

May 19, 2025 - Benjamin Schneider

Aerial view of homes and businesses destroyed by Altadena wildfire.

Tenant Advocates: Rent Gouging Rampant After LA Wildfires

The Rent Brigade says it's found evidence of thousands of likely instances of rent gouging. In some cases, the landlords accused of exploiting the fires had made campaign donations to those responsible for enforcement.

30 minutes ago - Shelterforce Magazine

View of downtown Seattle with construction cranes and cloudy sky as seen from top of Space Needle.

Seattle’s Upzoning Plan is Ambitious, Light on Details

The city passed a ‘bare-bones’ framework to comply with state housing laws that paves the way for more middle housing, but the debate over how and where to build is just getting started.

2 hours ago - The Urbanist

Woman and man in orange safety vests and hard hats doing surveying work at road construction site.

DOJ Seeks to End USDOT Affirmative Action Program

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program encouraged contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses in the transportation sector, where these groups are vastly underrepresented.

3 hours ago - The Washington Post