“Untenable situation”
Expect delays with construction between Johnstown and Fort Collins, and between Castle Rock and Monument
JOHNSTOWN» If you find driving Interstate 25 a massive time suck today, your stress level will only mount over the next three years as two major stretches of Colorado’s busiest thoroughfare go under the knife at the same time.
In the span of a week, work began this month on a 14mile segment of I25 between Johnstown and Fort Collins and an 18mile chunk between Castle Rock and Monument. Nighttime lane closures and other slowdowns are expected as crews tackle what will amount to a nearly $700 million effort to unclog worsening traffic on both sides of the metro area.
“I25 is an abject failure right now,” said Johnstown Mayor Scott James, who travels the highway in and out of Loveland every day. “The need to do something is astronomical.”
Colorado Department of Transportation traffic data show that the average daily number of vehicles on I25 directly south of Fort Collins ranges between 61,000 and 76,000, while the number south of Castle Rock — known as The Gap — is between 71,000 and 77,000 vehicles per day. Both segments have two lanes in each direction.
CDOT said travelers through The Gap regularly experience delays 40 percent over what normal travel time should be for that segment, with an average of nearly one crash a day to clear from the busy roadway.
“There’s more traffic on that stretch of road than it was designed to handle,” said Tamara Rollison, a CDOT spokeswoman who oversees the I25 Gap overhaul project.
CDOT’s primary weapon in alleviating congestion in the corridor is one that is rapidly proliferating along the Front Range — tolled express lanes that offer fluctuating prices depending on how busy the road is. The first lanes of this type opened on U.S. 36 between Boulder and Denver three years ago, and they are being built in the C470 corridor. They are also planned for the $1.2 billion Central 70 project in northeast Denver, which broke ground last month.
On both segments of I25, two lanes in each direction will remain free to use, while a third lane will charge a toll to those willing to pay it. The express lane will not cost anything for those with three or more people in a vehicle — a permutation of carpooling known as HOV3.
CDOT says tolling is designed to keep traffic moving in the express lanes at a minimum speed of 55 mph. The heavier the traffic, the higher the toll in order to ensure that the minimum speed is maintained, the agency says.
Tolling on both segments of I25 will be set on a timeofday basis (peak versus off peak) to start with, though the transportation agency is working on introducing realtime dynamic tolling over the next few years that would more precisely read road conditions to trigger more effective toll rate adjustments.
“We want to provide trip reliability and
give people choices,” said Jared Fiel, a CDOT spokesman.
Headaches for drivers through 2021
But the trajectory to the day in 2021 when I25 flows more freely will be far from smooth. Lanes will narrow, heavy equipment will be brought in and delays will stack up as lanes shift, the highway is widened and bridges are rebuilt. CDOT pledges to keep at least two lanes open during the day in each direction throughout construction of both projects.
“We restrict our lane closures to the least impactful times, which is off peak and overnight,” Rollison said. “But motorists need to be prepared for delays at nighttime.”
At the southwest corner of Colorado 402 and I25 just outside Loveland, a hill of dirt grows larger every day. Work crews have taken to jokingly calling the promontory Mount 402, Fiel said, as trucks bring loads of crushed rock that was blasted from Big Thompson Canyon as part of road repairs being made in the aftermath of the 2013 flood. The 320,000 cubic yards of crushed rock being trucked out of the canyon will be used as road base for the expanded I25.
“There is going to be construction, there are going to be delays,” said Larimer County Commissioner Tom Donnelly, who calls the frequent bumpertobumper backups on I25 in his county an “untenable situation.”
“But what we get after that will make it worth it,” he said.
Not only will each direction of the highway get an express lane, four bridges will be replaced and another four widened. Bus service on the Bustang line will be improved (total trip time will go down by 15 minutes) after new bus slip ramps are built to the new ParknRide at Kendall Parkway, according to CDOT. Bike and pedestrian paths will be built under I25, while a trail under the highway at Cache la Poudre River will provide a crossing for wildlife.
The total cost to overhaul I25 in Larimer County is estimated at $330 million.
The I25 Gap will also see wildlife crossings added — five of them, in fact — in addition to four reconstructed bridges. Truckclimbing lanes will be added at Monument Hill and the Greenland exit, while shoulders will be widened along the 18mile stretch.
That’s critical, Rollison said, because of a pair of tragic state trooper deaths in recent years. In 2015 and 2016, troopers lost their lives after being struck by passing motorists as they worked accident scenes on I25 just south of Castle Rock.
“With wider shoulders, there will be more room for disabled vehicles,” she said.
The Gap project in Douglas and El Paso counties is projected to cost $350 million.
“Doing nothing is not an option”
While there is little argument over the need to improve both sections of I25, there isn’t consensus on how CDOT is choosing to go about it. Many residents in taxaverse El Paso County spoke out loudly against tolling a lane in each direction in the runup to the groundbreaking of The Gap project this month.
They point to the nearly $25 million in taxes voters in the county passed last November to fund improvements to I25 — $14.5 million in a county tax measure and $10 million from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority. Late last year, the county commissioners unanimously passed an emergency resolution putting on record their opposition to toll lanes in the I25 Gap.
CDOT projects toll rates for both projects will be around 15 cents a mile, on average, when the express lanes open. El Paso County Commissioner Mark Waller told The Denver Post last week that he didn’t understand why there needs to be toll revenues generated when they’re not necessary to fund the project.
The Gap project is being paid for by a $65 million federal grant, $250 million in state money and $35 million in local money from Douglas and El Paso counties.
Four free lanes in each direction would have been enough to take care of traffic issues for decades to come, Waller said. But he doesn’t want philosophical opposition to a toll lane to stop the planned improvements.
“The project needs to get done,” he said. “Doing nothing is not an option.”
Waller’s sentiments are echoed by his counterparts up north, where The I25 North Express Lanes project has received a funding boost from local communities along the corridor — $55 million total from Fort Collins, Loveland, Berthoud, Johnstown, Timnath and Windsor, and Larimer and Weld counties.
Donnelly, a commission er in Larimer County, is no fan of introducing tolls to northern Colorado. But he also recognizes that any improvements to I25 would be decades away if a traditional funding approach were followed, given Colorado’s ongoing transportation funding squeeze — a squeeze that has spawned two transportationfunding ballot measures on this November’s ballot.
He worries about the fact that I25 south of Johnstown will remain a twolane roadway in each direction for the foreseeable future, raising questions about whether southbound traffic will bottleneck once the express lane runs out. But Donnelly said if voters are in a generous mood in November and pass either transportation spending measure before them, money to continue expansion of I25 will be available in the years to come.
James, the Johnstown mayor, said closing the door on tolling out of principle is ultimately detrimental to those who rely on I25 every day. And it totally ignores the fact that state demographers have projected that 3 million new residents are coming to Colorado over the next 35 years, with many of them expected to settle on the Front Range north and south of metro Denver.
The highway is simply too important to the economic health of communities north of Denver to quibble over funding details, James said.
“I25 is without a doubt the economic lifeblood of northern Colorado,” he said. “It’s our way of life.”