Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: CDOT

Colorado Road Funding Initiative Nears November Ballot After 180,000 Signatures Submitted
The Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Road Funding Initiative Nears November Ballot After 180,000 Signatures Submitted

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Gazette Organizers of a proposal seeking to dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to road construction and maintenance have submitted signatures to state election officials in their campaign to put the initiative on the ballot this November. If officials certified the signatures as sufficiently meeting the threshold — organizers need 124,000 to be valid — the battle shifts to persuading voters to embrace or reject the ballot question. The measure, Initiative No. 175, would require that all transportation-related revenue be used exclusively for building and repairing roads and bridges, improving safety, conducting transportation planning and engineering, and supporting Colorado State Patrol operations. The battle over road funding ha...
The $3M campaign behind Colorado’s CoCo rail tax proposal
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The $3M campaign behind Colorado’s CoCo rail tax proposal

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice The Colorado Department of Transportation had options when describing what $3 million in state transportation funds would buy. Public education. A feasibility study. Community engagement. It called it a Ballot Access Plan. That language — "develop a Ballot Access Plan and Implementation of the Plan" — sits in the purpose clause of a contract which took effect on March 26, 2026 between CDOT and the Front Range Passenger Rail District, the latter established by the legislature in 2021 to plan and eventually build passenger rail along the I-25 corridor. RMV obtained the contract through a public records request. If voters approve a sales tax increase this November, the district would use those funds — along with money ...
Rural Colorado Road Concerns Gain Ground As Bipartisan Resolution Moves to full Senate
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Rural Colorado Road Concerns Gain Ground As Bipartisan Resolution Moves to full Senate

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette A Republican legislator said he was pleasantly surprised on Wednesday when the state Senate’s transportation panel advanced a resolution brought to him by county commissioners urging the Colorado Department of Transportation to invest more money to fix roads. Road maintenance is “probably the No. 1 issue” in his seven-county district, said Sen. Byron Pelton, R-Sterling. Morgan County’s transportation infrastructure is the worst, he added. According to a 2023 CDOT assessment, 70% of the roads in the county are in the “red” for maintenance, meaning they’ll soon be undrivable. A Reason Foundation report ranked Colorado 47th in the nation for rural road conditions. Pelton mentioned a 2021 funding legislation, Sen...
Colorado Congressman Accuses Polis Administration Of Mismanaging Road Funds
kdvr.com, Approved, State

Colorado Congressman Accuses Polis Administration Of Mismanaging Road Funds

By: Hanna Powers | KDVR FOX31 DENVER (KDVR) — A Colorado congressman is accusing the state of mismanaging transportation dollars, arguing that despite record funding, roads across Colorado are in worse shape than ever. Rep. Gabe Evans, who represents Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, shared an exclusive letter with FOX31 that he is sending directly to Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Department of Transportation Executive Director Shoshana Lew. In the letter, Evans raises concerns about roadway safety, crumbling infrastructure, and what he describes as a failure to prioritize basic road maintenance over mass transit and climate-focused projects. “This stretch of I-25 is one of the busiest highways in the state,” Evans told FOX31, pointing to the corridor that ...
The highway rule few Coloradans know is steering road projects
ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

The highway rule few Coloradans know is steering road projects

By Scott James | Commentary, Scott K. James Colorado’s GHG rule quietly reshaped every major highway decision, forcing climate math over real-world mobility. Part 2 exposes how it happened Yesterday, in Part 1, we traced how Colorado got quietly rewired: from voters rejecting Prop 112… to SB19-181 passing anyway… to statewide GHG targets… to “roadmaps” that turned climate goals into marching orders… to SB21-260, welding transportation funding to climate policy. Today isn’t about another bill. Today is about one rule – written in the middle of COVID, on glitchy Zoom calls and muted microphones – that quietly changed how every major transportation decision in Colorado gets made: The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Transportation Planning St...
CDOT’s speed cameras flip justice on its head in Democrat-run Colorado
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

CDOT’s speed cameras flip justice on its head in Democrat-run Colorado

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project CDOT warned you, now they're going to start taking your money. Per the CPR article linked first below, CDOT (granted the authority by a 2023 bill which you'll find a link for embedded in the article) is going to start issuing citations instead of warnings for their automated speeding cams. This is for a section of HWY 119 between Longmont and Boulder. As part of reading the article, I went back on some of the links to CDOT's websites, and found the one where CDOT lists the areas where they are using their automated cameras. That site is linked second below. If you're on the highways often and want to avoid getting a ticket, keep that one handy. In looking over the CDOT sites on this speeding enforcement, what y...
Potholes and Broken Promises: Colorado’s Working Class Deserves Better
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Potholes and Broken Promises: Colorado’s Working Class Deserves Better

By Bobbie Daniel | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Drive a mile in Colorado and you’ll know the truth: our roads are crumbling, and so is the promise that the government would take care of this basic function. Families scrape by to keep their cars running while the same political elite who’ve run this state for twenty years pour billions into pet projects and leave working people holding the bill. Colorado’s highways were built the way a farm is built — ditch by ditch, fence by fence, harvest by harvest. Generations of Coloradans invested billions so our economy could function. From rural to urban, our families could get where they needed to go. But now the ditch and fence are broken, and instead of repairing it, the political class is off buying themselves a BMW. Nice ride, m...
State transportation project shutters 22-year-old Grand Junction auto sales business via eminent domain
Approved, Local, The Business Times

State transportation project shutters 22-year-old Grand Junction auto sales business via eminent domain

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times For 22 years, GJ Auto Sales was a fixture in the Grand Junction community, a family-run business operated by Amber Colunga Martinez and Mike Martinez. But now, the lot at 320 S. First St. will be transformed into a state-led mobility hub, part of Colorado’s climate-focused transportation plan. Selling the property to the state of Colorado, the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County due to impending eminent domain has left the couple without enough to financially open up again in a viable location. The Martinezes said they first learned of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s plans not through official communication, but by reading a story in The Daily Sentinel. “We found out about it through the Sentinel posting an article about i...
Homeless camp cleared in Lakewood after years of complaints and media pressure
Approved, kdvr.com, Local

Homeless camp cleared in Lakewood after years of complaints and media pressure

By Alliyah Sims | Fox31 LAKEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — After nearly two weeks of pushing for answers and two years of neighbors dealing with a growing homeless encampment at the 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard interchange in Lakewood, crews cleared the site Wednesday. Mounting trash, fires being started, needles found in neighbors’ backyards, and contamination in a waterway that feeds into the Platte River were all big concerns. Cleanup started around 9 a.m. on Wednesday and lasted about 8 hours. Brett Charbonneau, the neighbor who contacted FOX31, was amazed that there was finally some action. Charbonneau and his neighbor Bob Emulengracht were relieved after watching crews clear out the encampment site near their neighborhoods. “The first thing I want to say is thanks to ...

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