Summit County: I-70 Coalition hires manager for solutions

SUMMIT COUNTY — Anyone who has ever sat in traffic on Interstate 70 and thought about ways to alleviate some of the congestion now has a person to talk to.

Boulder resident Tad Kline was recently selected by the I-70 Coalition to investigate and implement traffic-management strategies for the mountain corridor, and he’s open to suggestions.

“Everyone that does that drive has an opinion or an idea, and somewhere in the mix is the person with the right idea,” Kline said. “I am confident that there are things we can do to make the corridor 10 to 15 percent better without having to spend billions.”

Kline considers himself to be more of a policy person than a traffic engineer, and prior to his appointment, he served as the chairman of Boulder’s first citizen’s transportation board.

Trained as a lawyer, Kline also has served on the Boulder town council with a mission to expand the city’s bus system.

“My job is to figure out ways to get people to travel smarter,” Kline said. “Whether it’s car pooling, a better bus system, flex time or whatever. We’re open to ideas.”

The new position is a result of a partnership between the Colorado Department of Transportation, which provided the grant to fund the program, the Denver Regional Council of Governments, which will provide office and professional resources, and the I-70 Coalition. The yearly salary for the position is $60,000.

“We had a number of applicants for this poisition, and selected Tad because of his strong policy background,” said I-70 Coalition director Flo Raitano. “Travel-demand management is as much policy as anything else, and we felt he had the skills to get things going.”

In his first few months on the job, Kline is looking at other highways across the nation facing similar problems, but he realizes the I-70 mountain corridor is unique.

“Almost everywhere else, there are alternative routes, and here, I-70 is really the only way to go,” Kline said. “This is a one-of-a-kind corridor, but that is why people tend to love it so much.”

Knowing that a long-term solution for congestion is still decades away, the I-70 Coalition is studying an advanced-guideway system such as a monorail.

“If there were easy, cheap solutions, we would be jumping on them,” Kline said. “Right now it’s about allocating limited space more efficiently and teaching travelers to make good choices.”

One of the main problems that Kline is looking to address is the traffic congestion during ski season, particularly during peak times on Friday afternoons and Sundays.

Weather is another traffic concern and one that Kline believes is unique for I-70 in the mountains.

“People want to be up here the most when the weather is the worse,” Kline said. “So we need to figure out how to address that while spreading out the peak traffic. It’s daunting at times, but I’m excited to search for more potential solutions.”



Ashley Dickson can be reached at (970) 668-4629, or at adickson@summitdaily.com.