I-70 traffic debate fires up in Clear Creek

Click to Enlarge Browse and Buy Summit Daily Photos More than 250 people from areas between Denver and Summit County attended the first public forum addressing the state’s preferred alternatives to improving congestion and safety on Interstate 70. Many said they were worried about the impacts the 15 years of construction would have on their communities. Summit Daily/Jane Stebbins Get News Feeds

JANE STEBBINS
summit daily news
January 13, 2005

Comments
Print Email

EVERGREEN - Ann Callison of Denver shook her two ski passes at Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) officials at a meeting Wednesday night in Evergreen, saying that if the agency opts to widen Interstate 70, she will no longer ski in Colorado.

"I haven't used my Colorado card (this season)," she said. "It raises my blood pressure too much to get on this highway. And if you announce that you're going to widen - to urbanize - this highway, you can tell Colorado Ski Country USA, and you can tell (Vail Resorts chief executive officer) Adam Aron I will not continue to buy a Colorado Pass. I will stop skiing in Colorado."

Her comments were among about 40 made during a four-hour public forum at Clear Creek High School, where more than 250 citizens from areas between Frisco and Denver gathered to learn about CDOT's preferred alternatives to alleviating congestion and improving safety on the I-70 corridor between C-470 in Golden and Glenwood Springs.

The public forum was the first of 10 CDOT will hold in the next two months to dispense information and gather input from citizens affected by the proposed construction. Another discussion is scheduled in Summit County from 4-7 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Four Points Sheraton in Silverthorne.


How the alternatives rank
CDOT has 12 preferred alternatives, many of which involve some sort of highway widening while maintaining enough room in the corridor to accommodate a future rail system. Others would utilize buses. One alternative would involve stacking highway lanes in the narrow canyons through Clear Creek County - the least desirable option for many Clear Creek County citizens.

They argue that widening the highway could require condemnation of homes and businesses, increase noise and air pollution and result in an obsolete project by the time it is complete, something admitted by CDOT officials in their Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).

Many asked CDOT to extend the 90-day comment period that ends March 10. An equal number said they were concerned that the draft PEIS only addresses economic and social impacts before and after construction, but not during the work when people will be most impacted.

Others asked CDOT to consider lengthening its vision from the year 2025 to 2050.

Many who spoke indicated they would prefer CDOT build some sort of high-speed transit that would put Colorado in the forefront of modern technology, but that was voted down the last time the idea landed on the ballot. Others wondered if people in the West, where people are fiercely independent, would use such a system.

"I do not favor mass transit," said William Miller of Idaho Springs. "My ATV, my canoe, my sailboat, I cannot get them on a bus. My destination would not be the station, but off the beaten path, and then I'd be on foot."

Some questioned the equity of the economic benefits that resort communities would reap at the expense of Clear Creek County.


Will the people come?
Most were concerned about the time it will take to complete the project - some even noting that many citizens will spend the rest of their lives in a construction zone.

"Who has 10 to 20 years of their lives to wait for some sense of normality to return to our communities?" said Gail Drury-Murphy, of the historical society in Dumont.

Sandra Sajbel of Evergreen said if the highway is widened, more people will visit resort communities. And she questioned if those areas could handle that additional traffic.

"When I see ribbons of highway being widened, I have to ask," she said. "Are we willing to destroy the Colorado everyone comes here to enjoy and admire?"

Other concerns expressed included the $4 billion cap CDOT executive director Tom Norton placed on the work. Some said the process was manipulated to benefit the asphalt industry - an accusation often directed at CDOT officials and Gov. Bill Owens.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and again and expecting a different result," said Mary Jane Loevlie of Clear Creek County. "We told you the same thing 16 years ago, and you keep doing the same thing. It's not going to work. You're not listening to us. If you listened to us at the MIS (Major Investment Study), we'd be six years into the project and building a transportation system for the 21st century."

"The highway men killed my light rail project in 1969, and again in 1986," said Hugh Fowler of Denver, who once served on the Colorado Intermountain Fixed Guideway Authority. "And they're still at it."

Clear Creek County commissioner Ed Rapp, to whom others gave their allotted three-minute period to speak, listed numerous questions criticizing CDOT.

"We are not obstructionists, and you are not bad people," he summarized later. "The difference is that you come from an institutional culture versus here, where we have to live, work and nurture these mountains for future generations."

Clear Creek County commissioner Harry Dale said he doesn't know how far the county will go to get what they need and want, but said litigation, while not a first choice, is not out of the question.

"All the jurisdictions are concerned," said. "For most people in the corridor, this will be the biggest impact in their lifetime."



Jane Stebbins can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 228, or at jstebbins@summitdaily.com.