Transportation strategy short on project funding

The Colorado Department of Transportation is currently at work on a statewide transportation plan that takes a look at the state’s needs until 2040. Virtually every part of the state is covered in the plan.

FUNDING ISSUES

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The problem is money. While the state’s transportation budget is in the range of $700 million to $800 million every year, most of that money goes toward simply maintaining the existing network. There are other pools of state, local and federal money, but the bottom line is that the bill for improvements runs into the tens of billions, with nowhere near enough revenue to pay for them.

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IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING

Vail Town Manager Stan Zemler is the town’s representative on the I-70 Coalition, a group of town and county governments along the highway corridor. Zemler said that group is focused more on the near term.

“But a long-term plan starts to set the stage for how we proceed in the future,” Zemler said.

David Eller, the transportation manager for the department of transportation’s Region 3, which is much of the Western Slope, agreed with the need to get as much planning in hand as possible.

But the state’s transportation funding won’t improve for the foreseeable future. The transportation department doesn’t receive any money from the state’s general fund. Most of the money comes from the state’s fuel taxes as well as a recent increase in auto registration fees. Money for specific projects can come from federal sources, and communities often contribute to project costs.

But the gas tax is quickly becoming an anachronism.

Just after parking her Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid, department of transportation spokeswoman Amy Ford said that the state’s gas tax hasn’t been increased since 1991. And while the state’s human and vehicular populations have grown significantly in the past 25 years, gas tax revenues haven’t kept pace, in large part because more efficient vehicles use less fuel while in many cases driving just as many miles as more gas-hungry vehicles once did.

“The gas tax may actually be a dying thing,” Ford said.

CHARGING DRIVERS

That’s why state transportation officials are looking at alternatives. One alternative, which will probably be the subject of a test project in the next year or so, is finding a way to charge highway users for the miles they drive. Oregon is already experimenting with a pay-as-you-drive system.

Ford said there’s a lot to consider with any such system, including privacy and fairness between rural and urban residents.

Until then, though, plans like a third lane on eastbound Interstate 70 up Vail Pass will be waiting for planning and money.

smiller@vaildaily.com