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Jesus Torres can see a lot from his perch in the cab of a tanker truck. Cars with blown tires on the side of the pothole-scarred roads. Overturned tankers on exit ramps curved too sharply for large modern trucks to handle. And more often than not, red tail lights snaking into the distance. “They need to add more lanes to all the highways,” he said on a recent morning on Interstate 270 just after leaving the Phillips 66 terminal in Commerce City. Far too often, Torres said, accidents on this highway through Colorado’s industrial center will cause long delays that...

Democrats in the General Assembly have managed to give every explanation imaginable for why you have to pay more — during an economic crisis — for what should have been a top spending priority for Colorado lawmakers over the last decade. They’ve done a fine job at gaslighting the people of Colorado into believing that not only is there no other solution to funding our roads and bridges than Senate Bill 260, but that the shortage of funds we’re experiencing today is indeed your fault. It’s not the only solution, and it is not your fault that our roads and...

It was only three months ago that we lowly voters passed Prop 117 to stop the state legislature from raising taxes without our consent by calling them new “fees.” Thanks to our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, we get to vote on tax increases. Well, at least we did until our TABOR-loathing state Supreme Court ruled that taxes labeled a “fee” need no consent. We just want consensual taxation. Now, the legislature is already entertaining a colossal tax increase, again, without our consent, this time for transportation. The dodge they plan to get around 117 is to immensely increase an existing...

A study prepared by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) for state lawmakers suggests more fees to defray infrastructure costs and reduce emissions from emerging transportation methods ... Those fees, if implemented, could result in $14 million to $80 million more in annual revenue... Critics of the study’s fee recommendations argue they could harm consumers. ... Emerging transportation includes car rentals, ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft, and food delivery apps like Uber Eats, and e-commerce deliveries, such as Amazon Flex, which delivers packages to consumers’ doorsteps. ... CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew wrote in a letter to lawmakers accompanying...

Crony Bidding And Gross Incompetence Reign.. At a time when Coloradans are desperately pleading for improved and new roadways the agency in charge of the same, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), is mired in the greatest crisis of its long-storied existence . ... In December 2018, Governor Jared Polis appointed 35-year-old Shoshana Lew as his new Executive Director, a history major .. She replaced Governor Hickenlooper's appointment of 56-year-old Michael Lewis, an engineer with extensive public construction management experience. ... Lew's primary qualification .. was her close relationship to Michelle Obama who called the newly elected governor for a...

A high-speed transit system through the mountain corridor could serve as a major economic boon to communities on the Western Slope, according to a new study recently published by Development Research Partners. A high-speed transit system — likely in the form of a train that would carry passengers and light freight between Denver International Airport and Eagle County Regional Airport — was listed in the 2011 Record of Decision issued by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration as a potential long-term solution to dealing with congestion on Interstate 70. Late last year, stakeholders — including the...

In August 2018, the Colorado Department of Transportation broke ground on Central 70, a massive five-year (at minimum) project intended to reimagine and revitalize a stretch of Interstate 70 through Denver — and construction on the I-270 flyover to eastbound I-70 will result in a large stretch of the highway being closed at 10 p.m. tonight and staying that way for the entire weekend. The timing of this temporary shutdown is noteworthy, given that it follows in the wake of a new national report that rips Central 70 and argues that rather than expanding the existing roadway, CDOT should tear...

It sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, but Colorado has been named one of 10 finalists for the Hyperloop One competition, which could end with a vacuum-sealed tunnel shooting people from Cheyenne to Pueblo and Vail to Denver at speeds up to 700 miles per hour. The futuristic, pod-based transportation system for Colorado could cost as much as $24 billion, but it's only one of a number of major developments in the realm of transportation throughout 2017. The proposed route for a Colorado Hyperloop accounts for roughly 360 miles total, and the Los Angeles firm that's sponsoring...

A telephone survey seeking opinions about the expansion of I-70 through east Denver is generating irate protests from some respondents, who say the survey seems designed to elicit positive responses about the purported benefits of the $1.8 billion project."It was one of the most one-sided push polls I ever listened to," Larry Patchett, a production technician for public television, wrote in a complaint to CDOT. "The entire thing was just a series of opportunities to validate your suppositions and PR spin on the I-70 Ditch project." The project, which would replace a crumbling six-lane viaduct with a below-grade, partially covered...

DENVER (AP) — Colorado's legislative leaders knew they faced a hard sell when they unveiled a bipartisan measure to ask voters for a sales tax hike and a bond issue to generate billions of dollars for transportation. That hard sell was on full display before the Democrat-led House initially approved the bill on party lines Thursday. Even after that approval, Republicans kept trying to change the bill.

DENVER (CBS4)– Federal authorities told the Colorado Department of Transportation and opponents of the planned Interstate 70 expansion this week that it would open an investigation into claims the project violates the Civil Rights Act.The pending investigation comes in response to a federal complaint filed with the U.S Department of Transportation by Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, and neighborhood groups impacted by the project, including the Cross Community Coalition, Colorado Latino Forum and Elyria-Swansea Neighborhood Association. Filed last month, the complaint alleges CDOT’s plan will result in “disparate and severe environmental and economic impacts” on the predominantly Latino communities.Candi CdeBaca,...

A former Chicago transportation official was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for taking bribes to steer $100 million in red-light camera contracts to a company in Phoenix. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall sentenced John Bills, 55, in Chicago moments after he apologized for his actions. Federal prosecutors had asked the judge for at least a 10-year prison sentence. The former second-in-command at Chicago's Department of Transportation was convicted in January of bribery, conspiracy and extortion. Bills was accused of accepting envelopes stuffed with cash, along with gifts — including condos in two states and a Mercedes — to...

The executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation said Thursday that the agency has secured land in Pueblo for its new headquarters and will house the Colorado State Patrol on its new campus. Shailen P. Bhatt ... said that CDOT will announce the location of its land acquisition soon.

Last week, Governor John Hickenlooper announced a $100 million plan to make Colorado “the best state for biking.” ... Of the total $100 million, about 70 percent will come from CDOT

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday named Shailen Bhatt the next executive director for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). He will assume the role in mid-February. Bhatt will replace Don Hunt, who will remain at CDOT through the end of February to transition with Bhatt ... Prior to serving at DelDOT, Bhatt was an associate administrator at the Federal Highway Administration ... "Don Hunt has been a remarkable executive director for the Colorado Department of Transportation. His ability to galvanize the Herculean efforts that so swiftly reopened the state's bridges and the hundreds of miles of roads damaged by the...

APRIL FOOLS — Flanked by dozens of out-of-work hardrock miners anxious to put their skills back to work, city transportation and Colorado Our Way or the Highway Department officials announced plans this morning for Glenwood Springs' version of Boston's infamous “Big Dig.” Instead of going forward with the planned Grand Avenue Bridge replacement, the Permanent Landing Team (PLT) has been meeting in secret at the CDOT Hanging Lake Tunnel command center for months hatching the new plan. It will involve tunneling from the north side of the Colorado River at the Interstate 70 Exit 116. The 1.5-mile underground passage will...

A three-lane bridge, envisioned as the centerpiece of a $54 million highway project, is sitting between a cow pasture and a mesa as the state struggles to get rights of way to connect it to actual roads. Residents here, who are waging a war of words in local letters to the editor, call it the "Bridge to Nowhere." "We all have to wonder why they did this like this," said Doug Ervin, whose home lies in sight of the bridge to the north. "There is a lot of taxpayer money at risk here." Under the Colorado Department of Transportation's preferred...

Colorado Department of Transportation Director Russ George wants to see an “absolute, irrevocable” start to a mass transit system along Interstate 70 to come out of an ongoing transportation needs study. George told a seminar Friday he hopes a blue-ribbon panel on which he sits will ask lawmakers to allow his department to use mass transportation to confront the state’s transportation needs. “They will likely say (the department) can do highways, but it can do other things, too,” he said. “Yes, we need to have rail, we need more trails and transit. There’s no question in my mind that we...

A transportation panel appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter and charged with taking public input around the state the rest of this year is, "little more than an attempt to justify the governor's next big tax hike," Senate Republican leader Andy McElhany said today. The veteran Colorado Springs lawmaker, who has made transportation a cornerstone of the Republican agenda, said a sustainable mechanism for transportation-funding already exists, "if only the General Assembly can refrain from siphoning money off of it to grow other programs." "These blue-ribbon panels that bring together notable experts and interested citizens are fine and well if all...