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December
18, 2001
By Janelle Holden
Journal staff writer
Making plans for new statewide transportation projects when the old ones haven’t been fully funded may seem overly optimistic, but the Colorado Department of Transportation doesn’t think so.
Despite state budget shortfalls that left CDOT’s “Seventh Pot” projects $170 million short in fiscal year 2002, the department is asking each region to develop a list for an Eighth Pot, in case new funds should become available sooner rather than later.
“We have to have a plan in place, and we will of course fund the Seventh Pot projects first,” said Nancy Shanks, a spokesperson for CDOT. “However, if we don’t continue to work with communities and local elected officials to identify needs for the future, then once money is available, nothing would get funded if it weren’t planned for, so basically the planning process has to continue.”
In 1997, the state Legislature agreed to fund 28 state transportation projects, dubbed the “Seventh Pot” because CDOT has six transportation regions, and the additional pot was supposed to cover extra projects across the state. The 28 projects will cost the state, in year 2000 dollars, approximately $5.7 billion.
So far, 11 of the projects have been completed or are nearly complete, said Shanks.
Montezuma County Com-missioner Gene Story told CDOT representatives at a public meeting in Durango last Tuesday that at least three state highway sections in the county should make the Eighth Pot list of projects to be funded if money becomes available beyond the already-planned Seventh Pot projects.
They include expanding South Broadway to the County Road G intersection to four lanes; reconstructing U.S. Highway 160 to the Four Corners; and expanding U.S. Highway 666 to four lanes from County Road G to the New Mexico state line.
Region 5’s Transportation Director, Richard Reynolds, called the roads “pathetic” but said CDOT doesn’t have the funds to fix them right now.
Although state Rep. Mark Larson (R-Cortez) says he wants state funds to go toward the Seventh Pot before the Eighth Pot projects are funded, highways 160 and 666 may be an exception.
“What I think is going to have to happen is that due to that road’s deterioration I think we’re going to have to do an expedited funding request,” said Larson on Monday.
“I think it’s probably going to take an extraordinary effort to get that done in between the Seventh Pot and the Eighth Pot. That may be the one we go out and say, ‘OK, we understand you want to do U.S. Highway 36, but have we told you how important 666 is to us and 160?’ ”
Projects outside of the Seventh Pot, such as the Mancos Intersection, will also feel the shortfall.
Normally, CDOT receives 10 percent of general-fund revenues for the Seventh Pot, which comes to nearly $200 million a year. Next year, based on current projections, the Seventh Pot will take in only $30 million. Outside of the Seventh Pot projects, transportation is funded through sales and use taxes for state motor vehicles.
If the worst-case scenario occurs, Region 5 transportation funding will drop from a projected $15.3 million to $3.7 million.
Shanks said that’s because when CDOT lost the Seventh Pot money, all regional projects had to be put on hold, and the transportation commission decided to take a “conservative” look at the whole state transportation plan.
Reynolds said the $1.1 million budgeted for right-of-way purchases near the Mancos intersection could be put on hold for several years, and the actual $5 million needed to complete the repairs would come some time later.
“That project has grown way beyond the funding we had. I can’t say for sure on that, I don’t know,” said Reynolds, when asked when the project would be completed.
In this region, over 60 percent of the state highways are listed in poor or fair condition, while more vehicles than ever are traveling on those highways, Reynolds said on Thursday. CDOT’s goal is to keep 60 percent of the region’s highways in fair or good condition.
It takes $180 million a year just to keep roads in good or fair condition, said Reynolds.
Reynolds hopes the Colorado Legislature will find a way to boost transportation funding, even though it faces a $350 million budget shortfall this year.
Larson said there is hope for further funding.
“We are already exploring using capital-construction dollars for highway projects,” Larson said Monday. “A good example is on the budget that we were looking at, the most recent projections show that in 2006 and 2007, there’s $1.68 billion available for capital-construction projects, so clearly we can utilize, based on our prioritization process, upwards to $500 million out of that pool of money.”
“There are some imbalances for this fiscal year and it’s a tough situation, there’s no doubt about it,” said Steve Parker, a newly appointed state transportation commissioner from Durango. “The commission is scrambling — the whole state is scrambling.”
Parker said his priorities are to fund the Seventh Pot and keep up with road-surface treatments.
“I believe we have very likely, mile for mile, the most expensive highway system in the U.S. to operate,” said Parker.
Colorado keeps 40 mountain passes open year-round, and Parker said that’s more than the other mountain-time-zone states combined.
“We only have one transportation system in Southwest Colorado that we can count on and it’s highways,” he said.
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