I-70 Study: Best Traffic Fix Costs Up To $20B
DENVER (AP) - A study of ways to ease traffic jams on Interstate 70 in the Colorado mountains has confirmed that the alternative preferred by planners would cost $16 billion to $20 billion.
The study's final version, which was released Friday, did not differ substantially from a draft version released in September, according to The Summit Daily News.
It examined alternatives for a 144-mile stretch of I-70 from Denver to Glenwood Springs, which serves most of the state's major ski areas and a national forest popular with outdoors enthusiast. It also carries heavy traffic east-west through the state.
The preferred alternative includes rail, monorail or other fixed-guide way systems, widening to six lanes in some segments and adding a third tunnel bore for at least two existing tunnel sites, the Eisenhower Tunnel at the Continental Divide and the Twin Tunnels east of Idaho Springs.
Truck traffic improvements would include more pullouts, parking and stations for drivers to install tire chains. At least 20 interchanges would be improved.
The funding for the project remained unresolved. The study listed tolls and public-private partnerships as options.
The study, called a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, projected that weekend travel times could triple from 2000 without corridor improvements.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
