Don't wreck history to ease traffic
Roads bring out the worst in us. We want more, so we can get where we're going faster. But none of us wants new roads, bigger roads, one-way roads near us.
Interstate 70 into the mountains is the tough one. Traffic is ghastly - bumper to bumper, often a complete standstill on weekends. There are 224 recreation sites within three miles of I-70, so traffic never wanes.
The obvious solution is for more lanes. But is that the best answer?
For several years, the Colorado Department of Transportation has been studying the traffic morass from the I-70/C-470 interchange west of Denver to Glenwood Springs - a stretch of road 151 miles long. Decisions are expected to be made this year. Most alternatives under consideration are in Jefferson, Clear Creek and Eagle counties.
There's been considerable community input and citizen participation in the process, but the communities to be most impacted, particularly in Clear Creek County, are dubious of their real influence.
"If 30 governments - counties and cities - are willing to talk about this, it shows no one is happy with the present proposals," observes Georgetown activist Cynthia Neely.
Some fear it's a forced march to an inevitable conclusion. Or a common government agency ploy: We'll let you talk about it, but we'll do what we always do, what we've already decided.
Idaho Springs, Georgetown, Silver Plume, Dumont and others are the most vulnerable to I-70 "improvements." These are healthy, vibrant communities with rich pasts and resources. Idaho Springs is a designated district on the National Register of Historic Places and Georgetown/Silver Plume a National Historic Landmark District.
A CDOT study found 1,477 known historic properties within the corridor.
The dangers from any widening of I-70 are so severe that Colorado Preservation Inc. named the historic communities of the I-70/Clear Creek Expansion Corridor to its 2005 Colorado's Most Endangered Places list in February, with the support of the National Trust for Historic Places. These communities are the living record of Colorado's mining, milling, timber and railroad history, as well as prized places for visitors to enjoy natural beauty and charming historic structures. They're good places to live or visit. They should not be sacrificed.
Envision the towns and I-70 now, and think what widening the highway will do. Not a pretty picture.
Even worse, construction would take 15 years, at a cost of as much as $4 billion. When it's complete, because of population growth, the congestion and traffic delays will be about the same as right now, CDOT says. That's progress?
Of the 20 alternatives, the nine preferred are highway widenings - almost 24 miles in Clear Creek County, said Dennis Lunbery, Idaho Springs mayor. "It will devastate our economy, our quality of life, be terrible for travelers. For 15 years. You should not be able to destroy our lives to get people to Vail, or wherever."
Jim Lindberg of the National Trust is one of many who believe that evaluating the choke points where traffic consistently jams up, such as Floyd Hill, and then creatively engineering ways to solve those traffic jams could be both effective and more cost-efficient than wholesale widening. "In these days of fiscal challenges, it seems CDOT should be crafting some imaginative and practical alternatives to those trouble spots," Lindberg said.
Some Clear Creek citizens think a high-speed elevated monorail into the mountains would be a sensible alternative, citing systems operating in China, Japan and Germany. Others are wary.
But one thing is mentioned time and again: "Should there be another entry to the mountains? Why does everything have to come by I-70?" asked JoAnn Sorensen, former county commissioner for eight years and now on the ad hoc citizens' I-70 task force. "Why funnel billions on only one route?"
Why indeed? U.S. 285, which runs roughly parallel south of I-70 is the likeliest contender. Perhaps millions spent here, including making Independence Pass to Aspen open year- round, would increase access to the mountains - Breckenridge, Leadville, etc. - at a lesser overall construction cost and with less destruction of established communities. And ease I-70 traffic.
The stretch of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon is probably the only highway of which Colorado can truly be proud. It's beautiful, environmentally sensitive, sits lightly on the spectacular landscape. And it does all these things because Colorado citizens demanded that such a splendid location deserved a very special highway, not the usual one-road-fits-all design. It was a multiyear battle, with citizens holding the highway department's feet to the fire.
The department rose to the challenge, finally, and we have this award-winning, beautiful road. CDOT can do such admirable work, but only when it's demanded. Mitigating I-70 traffic problems cries out for similar imaginative and practical solutions. It's definitely time for the feet- to-the-fire approach again.
Joanne Ditmer's column on environmental and urban issues for The Post began in 1962 and now appears on the third Sunday of the month.
