Your View of I-70

photo by Dave Amirault

The results are in and it’s a landslide. But you won't be surprised. Our front page poll asked "What do you think of the new bill proposed by Senator Chris Romer?". That’s the one that proposes a weekend toll on I-70 during ski season.

And here’s how you voted:

What a fabulous idea?—18% (48/265)

Is he nuts?—82% (217/265)

Coincidentally, the Denver Business Journal asked it’s readers a similar question with similar results. DBJ reader comments ranged from polite rotten tomatoes to some rather nasty things.

So is Sen. Romer discouraged? No way. Seems this kind of furor is exactly what the Senator thinks is needed to solve the slow, noisey, stinky mess. So he’s set up his own Google Group as a public forum for comments, ideas and beatings. You can comment to Sen. Romer at Fix I-70 Now.

Meanwhile nothing has changed on the I-70 Coalition Web site. And in a loosely related story The Colorado House of Representatives will begin studying the management of toll roads. This isn’t part of the I-70 study that CDOT is conducting. Instead this is related to the private management of E-470—a nine-mile link joining Interstate 25 and the Boulder Turnpike. The struggling highway brings up the question of whether private businesses should manage public roads. This particular road has been failing since it opened under the shared management of 2 counties and 1 municipality and continues on the low road after foreign investors took it over. But E-470 is a different animal from I-70 in that it’s an optional route, not the only route.

And so the I-70 saga continues...