Buckle up, mountain travelers: CDOT’s 5-year expansion of I-70 at Floyd Hill is about to start

“There are causes to repair the section from a security perspective, however we should always not fake this billion-dollar freeway growth is sweet for the local weather,” Matt Frommer, senior transportation affiliate with the Southwest Power Effectivity Challenge mentioned in an electronic mail. 

Requested whether or not the freeway growth causes him any concern from a local weather perspective, Polis talked about the state’s push for the fast adoption of electrical automobiles and expanded statewide transit service. However the level of the Floyd Hill mission is to make it simpler for folks to maneuver freely, he added. 

“Whether or not you drive an electrical automotive, or whether or not it is a bus, or whether or not you drive a automotive with an inner combustion engine, you want a highway to get the place you wish to go,” he mentioned. “And till there’s a profitable engineering and economics case for the high-speed rail that I believe is inevitable on this hall, individuals are going to be attending to the place they go along with automobiles.”

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Coloradans will at all times need mobility, added Sen. John Hickenlooper, calling it an “important a part of trendy life.” The freeway growth will permit for that, he mentioned — and make higher use of future enhancements to know-how by way of automobiles electrification and automation.

“What these guys have carried out is design a element to make our lives extra environment friendly and simpler, and fewer anxious and safer and sooner,” Hickenlooper mentioned. “However on the identical time, creating numerous alternative for what that future’s going to appear like.”

One native official, although, struck a barely extra somber observe. Clear Creek County Commissioner Randy Wheelock has been a loud supporter of the growth mission, and can also be an advocate for local weather motion. He’s hopeful that the growth will alleviate congestion and scale back the emissions of automobiles which might be not idling on the freeway. 

However, he added, the mission’s local weather success relies on folks altering their habits — to purchase electrical automobiles, journey transit, and keep away from touring at peak occasions.

“I do not need us to be an oppressive authorities that makes anyone get a allow to go away their home. We’re not gonna try this,” he mentioned. “However we’ve got to have a approach that individuals purchase into the concept that there are limitations to the place and after they can go or the place and when they need to go. … And if you cannot go in a approach that is sustainable, you then ought to not go except you completely should.”