Work starts on transportation plan

By Dan MacArthur
Correspondent

Support for passenger rail service dominated a Fort Collins open house kicking off an elaborate effort to develop a plan for improving travel along the north Front Range.

The public sentiment reflected the recommendation of the earlier North Front Range Transportation Alternatives Feasibility Study. Even so, don't plan on getting run out of town on a rail anytime soon. Commuter rail is just one among an entire array of alternatives to be considered. Moreover, any action is many years and multiple millions of dollars away.

Public comments gathered at the Feb. 10 meeting will help give shape to the environmental impact statement being developed over the next three years. Such an EIS is required under the National Environmental Policy Act before public funds can be applied toward transportation improvements in the corridor.

The study area extends from Wellington on the north to Denver's Union Station on the south. It is bounded by U.S. Highway 85 to the east and Highway 287 to the west.

The "scoping" session was the first step in an elaborate effort to identify transportation options for improving mobility and safety in the increasingly crowded commuter corridor. It provided an opportunity for residents to meet with project officials and express their concerns on sticky notes affixed to almost 30 maps and charts detailing various components of the study.

"Don't forget Wellington - it's becoming more and more desirable as it gets too crowded farther south. Plan for tremendous growth up north!" admonished one missive.

The EIS will explore regional transportation options in the study corridor, taking into consideration their effects on almost two-dozen aspects including economics, land use, air and water quality, wildlife and endangered species, and pedestrian and bicycle facilities.

The environmental impact statement follows on the heels of a less extensive environmental assessment that enabled the current widening of Interstate 25 from Colorado Highway 7 to Highway 66 to proceed.

Information gathered during this scoping period will be compiled into a list of alternatives later this year. Those alternatives will be screened and evaluated through 2005 in preparation for release of a draft EIS in early 2006. The final EIS will be issued in mid-2006 following public and agency review of the draft document. A record of decision will be issued in early 2007 following a similar public and agency review of the final environmental impact statement.

Project manager David Martinez of the Colorado Department of Transportation said no transportation improvements would be made in the corridor until at least 2012, largely because "there is no money."

But CDOT planning and environmental manager Stan Elmquist said, "We're looking at all kinds of options for investing transportation dollars in ways that make sense."

He said the state could use bonding authority to finance transportation improvements in the region. Elmquist said tolls could also be imposed on projects creating new transportation capacity to offset their costs.

Public comments can be directed to the project web site at www.i25northforty.com/eis; to its Greeley hotline at 970-352-5455, or to the North Front Range EIS in care of the CDOT Engineering Office, 2207 E. Highway 402, Loveland, CO 80537.