2006 CDOT Connecting Colorado Past, Present and Future Conference

Executive Director Norton’s opening remarks along with the presentations that followed on Tuesday, 10/24, clearly demonstrate CDOT’s focus on highways as Colorado’s priority transportation mode.  The focus for much of the presentations was how to find money to build and maintain more highways with Toll Roads being the primary solution for Colorado’s transportation future. 

According to Executive Director Norton, CDOT projected revenue will be $60 billion short of meeting the highway capacity needs of Colorado in 2030.  Since the projected 2030 transportation dollars are grossly inadequate for CDOT’s highway needs for the state, any 2030 planning strategy that allocates transit resources outside of FasTracks and the ten percent of SB97-01 dollars for transit should NOT be considered.  There was no discussion of promoting energy efficiency, compact land use and Transit Oriented Development; reducing automobile dependency, decreasing Vehicle Miles Traveled and controlling sprawl.  In fact, CDOT assumes that VMT will continue to grow more rapidly than population for the foreseeable future and that CDOT highway expansion planning should facilitate the projected VMT growth.  Escalating energy, tolling and parking costs that will provide an incentive to decrease VMT for most Coloradans was not even discussed.

Five items were discussed to make up a portion of the $60 billion revenue shortfall for CDOT’s projected 2030 highway needs. 

1. Permanent De-Brucing of SB97-01 dollars and completely allocating these revenues to roadway maintenance and expansion

2. Indexing of the State Fuel Tax to Inflation and completely allocating these revenues to roadway maintenance and expansion

3. Congestion Management Tolling

4.  Increasing Highway Project Bonding Limits

5. Encouraging Highway Improvement and Expansion RTA’s (Regional Transportation Authorities)

According to Executive Director Norton, between FasTracks and the ten percent of SB97-01 funds allocated for transit, the state has more than enough money for its transit needs for the foreseeable future and should NOT be considering funding for any additional transportation projects other than highways.  Rail based transit in the I-25 corridor and I-70 mountain corridor will not be needed for at least another 30 to 40 years.  In short, CDOT builds roads and does not do transit.

Another distinct contrast between CDOT’s concept of highways and transit relates to maintenance and operations.  This concept was made very clear by several conference presenters.  Building highways can be done without any regard or commitment for the operation and maintenance of the new roadway facility, but any new transit project can only be considered when a financially sound operating entity and stable funding stream are identified and created to support the transit project.  In many of the state's current EIS processes, it is a given that there will be transportation dollars available to develop and maintain the highway alternative, but there won't be any money to develop and maintain the transit alternative.  In addition, the same money that would be available for the highway alternative, cannot be used for the transit alternative.  The transit alternative is always dismissed because capital and operating funding cannot be clearly identified and committed, while there always appears to be a commitment for the highway alternative funding.

One of the messages from the conference was that six laning of I-70 in the mountain corridor is a foregone conclusion and must be accomplished for the economic benefit of the state.  Cost effective tunnel boring machines for a rail size bore parallel to the Eisenhower Tunnel will not be necessary, instead CDOT will consider building the world's biggest "Superbore" at a cost of up to $1 billion to accommodate highway lanes, ventilation and distant future transit.

The future of automobile travel was also discussed at the conference.  Four companies (Sirit, TransCore, Raytheon and Mark IV) are working as a Consortium with the USDOT, AASHTO, the State DOT's and the major automobile manufacturers to develop a U.S. standard transponder that will be integrated into every vehicle's computer to communicate the vehicle's telemetry data to a roadside network.  The FCC has allocated the 5.9 GHz band for this purpose.  Transponders will be able to transmit up to 300 yards to the roadside network and the roadside network will be able to transit up to 1,000 yards to a vehicle.  Speed, mileage, sensor data, engine performance, warrantee, maintenance and tolling information will be transmitted through the network to huge computer centers.  Vehicle to vehicle communications will also be possible to enable platooning and collision avoidance in an attempt to make driving as safe as alternate transportation modes such as rail. 

The conservative estimate to construct the computer centers and install the roadside wireless network on all major Colorado roads and signalized intersections is in the double digit billions.  It was argued that this cost is trivial compared to the economic benefits that this system will bring to Colorado, but there was no explanation provided on the details of this economic development outside of the simple concept that building roads creates economic growth.  Of course, the cost of promoting and expanding the least efficient means of transportation (individual vehicles on roadways), the cost of road maintenance and the cost to local governments to provide essential infrastructure and services to the increasingly dispersed populations that roadway expansion promotes, was never discussed. 

Also noticeably missing at the conference was any discussion of peak oil, global climate change, America’s reliance on foreign oil and the need for energy conservation and how these items may influence our transportation choices and Homeland Security in the future.  Clearly the current CDOT leadership is ignoring the potential for substantial liquid fuel cost escalation from world peak oil production and continued Middle Eastern conflicts over oil and gas resources, and the impacts of continued greenhouse gas emissions to the world’s climate. 

CDOT has not considered the cost rationing of liquid fuels that will occur within the next 15 years and influence VMT around the country, if not around the world.  Instead, CDOT maintains a very narrow focus on finding more dollars for increasing highway capacity, without contemplation of how escalating energy, tolling and parking costs and continued Middle Eastern conflicts over oil, will influence our travel behavior and quality of life as Colorado residents.

The topics of world peak oil, energy conservation, global climate change and America’s dependence on foreign oil apparently do not play a role in CDOT’s transportation planning process under the Owen's administration.  Colorado's aging population and the increasing number of Colorado seniors on fixed incomes in future years plays NO role in CDOT’s transportation planning process.  How many of Colorado's residents and visitors will the current CDOT planning process ignore?

The conference primary focus of acquiring more money for more highways demonstrates a very narrow and dangerous transportation vision for the future of Colorado.  Paving Colorado, Past, Present and Future may perhaps be a more appropriate title than Connecting Colorado, Past, Present and Future for this year’s CDOT Conference.