From Deseret News archives:

UDOT examines workings of 47-mile Colorado toll road

Published: Friday, Nov. 18, 2005 10:29 a.m. MST
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DENVER — Walking down an underground tunnel Thursday, Colorado transportation officials guided members of the Utah Department of Transportation into a new lifeline of Denver transportation — a toll booth on E-470.

An average of 150,000 toll transactions are handled every day on the 47-mile toll road spanning five counties, Colorado highway administrators report.

Some motorists stop to pay the $1.75 while others pass at full speed as the toll is electronically deducted from their pre-paid express account.

The operation in Denver is getting a firsthand look by Utah transportation administrators looking for innovative options in handling the critical transportation needs along the Wasatch Front over the next 30 years and the projected $23 billion shortfall in meeting them.

In the upcoming legislative session, Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, plans to sponsor a bill allowing UDOT to enter into partnerships with private companies to build toll roads. By allowing a private group to cover costs of construction in exchange for toll revenue, a road can be built in years rather than decades, he said.

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UDOT is also studying whether the Mountain View Corridor, a proposed freeway that would run along the west side of Salt Lake County into Utah County, should be a toll road. As with most other "new capacity" road projects in Utah, no funding exists to build the freeway.

Colorado officials said Denver was Salt Lake 15 years ago: As they looked down Denver's roads they saw gridlock and nowhere near enough state funding for a new highway.

They decided to turn transportation into a business venture, creating the E-470 Public Highway Authority.

"Without private funding, it wouldn't have ever been built," said E-470 executive director Edward DeLozier. When asked how Denver's roads would be today without the toll road, DeLozier summed it up in one word: "Miserable."

With it, I-25 and I-225 are just congested.

During the whirlwind, one-day tour, UDOT administrators and several state transportation commissioners were shown how cash is collected and security is managed. They were also told that Utah made a big contribution to the toll road's snow removal program: 2002 Winter Games officials sold E-470 several barely used snowplows. "We got a great deal," DeLozier said.

While the road is managed by the authority, the purse strings are controlled by a board of directors made up of every elected official from every city and county through which E-470 passes.

When the road opened in June 1991, each city and county had to take out a portion of the total $1.23 billion loan.

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Ken Papaleo, Rocky Mountain News

Cars travel on E-470 south of Smokey Hill Road, going past new neighborhoods. The toll road has eased congestion on the Denver area's freeways. It was built with private funding, to be fully paid back in 2076.

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