I-70 water, managed lanes and construction

“At a crossroads on road funding,” Sept. 27 editorial.

Phoenix recently had its third huge flash flood in the last couple of months, which again closed down more than one interstate there. In the beginning ofmy career, I worked in that city for 18 months, andmy first lessonwas to beware of the surprises and the monumental forces of sudden surface runoff in land depressions and arroyos.

So why we are considering building a 40-foot-deep black hole with the partial cover lowered design for Interstate 70 in North Denver is unfathomable.

Publicly, executive director Don Hunt and his staff at the Colorado Department of Transportation nowsay only four (one toll) lanes eachway are needed for tactical traffic forecasts, but the entire length and width of the submerged trench will be constructed. CDOT has further indicated that the one segment of I-70 thatwill generate adequate fees is between Interstates 225 and 270.

In numerous open meetings— including one of CDOT’s own statewide transportation advisory committees— reps from the state have directly replied that they don’t know how they will pay for the I-70 project. We haven’t sufficient resources to cover our desperate needs for roads, highways and bridges throughout Colorado, and any funding for I-70 will further deplete the annual CDOT budget.

Although CDOT did amagnificent recovery from the 500-year flood, it still projects it would take four additional years of costly repairs to bring the damaged roads back to a condition better than before.

Now, the so-called “preferred alternative” documentation contains numerous undetermined variables, so it is incredibly difficult to provide detailed assessments of its content or intentions.