Road
Colorado is located at a natural crossroads in the center of the country, so it is no surprise that Colorado's counties and communities boast one of the best transportation systems in the nation.
Major interstate highways provide easy east-west and north-south commercial transport. No other state in the nation can boast the infrastructure improvements Colorado has made over the past decade.
The Colorado Highway System
Colorado's state highway system comprises more than 9,000 miles, of which 954 miles are interstate highways. The convergence of I-25, a major north-south interstate, and I-70 and I-76, major east-west interstates, makes Colorado's front range a transportation hub.
Successive Colorado governors and legislatures have made a lasting commitment to maintaining and improving the highway system in the state as a critical contributing factor to Colorado's economic vitality.
Click here for a map of Colorado's highway system.
Click here for links to regional and city maps.
State Funding for Highway Construction and Improvement
The 2006-2007 fiscal year budget for the Colorado Department of Transportation is approximately $912.4 million, excluding TRANS bond proceeds used for construction projects.
As a result, Colorado's highways and roadways are remarkably well-maintained, with few of the potholes and structural deficiencies typically found in other states that, like Colorado, experience all four seasons.
Additionally, as Colorado continues to attract new residents at a rate that far exceeds the national average for in-migration, state transportation authorities are committed to staying ahead of the congestion curve by adding lanes and expanding highway capacity in anticipation of projected population trends.
T-REX
During construction, the Transportation Expansion Project (T-REX) was the largest multi-modal project in the U.S. T-REX was a $1.67 billion venture that is transforming the way people in the metro Denver area travel along the southeast corridor of Interstates 25 and 225. The T-REX project improved 17 miles of highway and added 19 miles of light rail through southeast Denver, Aurora, Greenwood Village, Centennial and Lone Tree.
The project is the result of a unique collaboration between the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation District. T-REX was financed primarily through Federal Highway Administration grants and existing transportation budgets, and did not require new or increased taxes in Metro Denver.
T-REX is considered the 'next generation' of transportation innovations. It combines the construction of additional interstate highway lanes, light rail, bike, pedestrian, and other options to address traffic congestion in one of Metro Denver's major employment corridors between downtown Denver and the Denver Technology Center.
Multi-agency cooperation, strong endorsement from Metro Denver citizens, and the unique 'design-build' concept make T-REX an example for other metropolitan areas. Design-build allows the design and construction of a project to occur simultaneously, resulting in cost/time savings and innovation.
Did You Know?
T-REX construction began in 2001 and finished in November 2006, |
Other Publicly Funded Highway Projects
Colorado voters, by a wide margin, approved bonding authority for the state to borrow as much as $1.7 billion for up to 24 transportation projects. The top five projects, based on cost, are as follows:
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High Occupancy Vehicles
A two-lane Downtown Expressway was recently completed, which runs through the most heavily traveled artery of Denver's transportation system, Interstate-25. The lanes are reserved for 'High Occupancy Vehicles'(HOV), and run from Highway 36 (Boulder Turnpike) to downtown Denver.
The flow of traffic is reversible, running from north to south in the morning hours for those commuting into downtown, and reversing to run south to north in the afternoon for the commute home.