Colorado OKs $350 Million for I-25 Expansion

Colorado has made lots of news recently for deprioritizing emissions-intensive transportation projects in its capital investment plans in accordance with a new state law, but to be clear, the state is still widening roads.

For example, the state is sending $350 million in federal and state funding to a project to add express lanes to a seven-mile stretch of Interstate 25 in Northern Colorado, reports Miles Blumhardt reports for the Coloradoan.

“The funding will allow CDOT to build express lanes, replace interchanges, widen shoulders and add bicycle and pedestrian facilities,” reports Blumhardt.

The various modes accommodated by the I-25 expansion plan offer fitting representations of the political situation facing the Colorado Department of Transportation as it attempts to walk the fine line mandated by SB21-200, namely, to consider the environmental impacts of projects and implement cleaner alternatives when emissions pass a certain level. The hope is that these new funding priorities will make non-automobile modes more attractive over the long term.

Over the short term, however, there are still road projects included in the state’s ten-year transportation funding plan, including new toll lanes on Interstate 270 and Interstate 70 and roughly a dozen arterial street expansions.