During its 2002 session, the Colorado Legislature created the Colorado Tolling Enterprise (CTE) as part of CDOT. The CTE law empowered the enterprise to finance, construct, operate and maintain highway facilities in Colorado and have tolls on those facilities. The facilities that CTE builds and places tolls on can be either in existing corridors or in new corridors. However, any improvements to an existing corridor cannot result in new tolls on presently free, general purpose lanes. CTE was governed by a board elected by the Colorado Transportation Commission.
The one major project CTE completed is the coversion of the north Denver I-25 HOV lanes to
HOT lanes, launched on June 2, 2006. The "I-25 Express Lanes"
are two barrier-separated lanes than run from 20th Street north to US
36. The lanes run south in the morning and north in the evening. The
lanes are free for HOVs and toll for single occupancy vehicles. Paying
a toll requires an ExpressToll transponder. The toll is variable
depending on the time of day.
The one other project that CTE undertook was the remainder of
Denver's beltway from Golden to US
36/Interlocken, referred to as the Northwest Corridor. Some of the
cities
and counties involved were going to form a Public Highway Authority
to build the Northwest Corridor, but CTE took it under its wing in
2003.
CTE
attempted to conduct an environmental study, with initially the idea
being CTE would build a tollway if that was the preferred alternative.
However, in June 2008 CDOT threw in the towel on the study. Due to lack
of future funding and the inability of those involved to reach
consensus, the study was halted.
CTE undertook a toll route feasibility study to determine
what corridors in the state would be good candidates for a new toll
road or toll lanes on an existing road. The corridors were scored based
traffic volume to capacity ratio, truck
traffic, projects planned, and projected population growth along the
corridor. At
the first round of study in 2003 the corridors were scored into two
levels. Those corridors were then whittled further for a 2004 study.
In January 2005 the board was presented with these findings showing the financial feasibility of potential toll corridors:
Glossary:Feasible toll corridors (toll revenue pays for costs)
Almost feasible toll corridors (toll revenue does not cover all costs, a subsidy would be required)
- I-25 North: 2 reversible managed toll lanes (MTL) from US 36 to 120th Ave, 2 MTLs each direction from 120th Ave to SH 66
- I-70 East: 2 MTLs each direction from Colorado Blvd to Chambers Rd
- I-225: 2 MTLs each direction from Parker Rd to I-70
- I-270: 2 MTLs each direction from I-25 to I-70
- I-70 Mountains: Add a third general purpose lane each direction from Eisenhower Tunnel to Floyd Hill, charge a $3 toll for all lanes in one direction -- This scenario was developed for analysis purposes only, tolling existing general purpose lanes is not allowed under state law as currently written.
Not feasible:
- SH 470: 2 MTLs each direction from I-70 to I-25
- Northwest Corridor: New 4-lane tollway from SH 58 to US 36 -- Note: Assumes the section from SH 128 to US 36 is not tolled
- Powers Blvd: New 4-lane tollway from I-25 Northgate to Woodmen Rd
- US 36: 1 MTL each direction from SH 157 to McCaslin Blvd, 2 MTLs each direction from McCaslin Blvd to Pecos St, 2 reversible HOT lanes from Pecos St to I-25
- US 287 Fort Collins Bypass: New 4-lane tollway from I-25 north of Wellington to US 287 near Livermore
- Banning Lewis Parkway: New 4-lane tollway east of Powers Blvd from I-25 Northgate to Fontaine Blvd
- Front Range Toll Road: New 4-lane tollway east of I-25 from Wellington to south of Pueblo
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Page created 15 August 2003
Last updated 13 November 2010