-by State Representative Gwyn Green

      Multiple studies conducted to look at reducing congestion in the metro’s northwest quadrant have each verifed that 1) congestion is located in the eastern part of the quadrant and that 2) traffic and congestion is from internal traffic within cities, rather than traffic moving regionally through the northwest quadrant.

      The subject of a metro area beltway completion was first broached in 1989, and defeated by 80% of the voters.  Shortly afterwards, Jefferson County and cities in the northwest quadrant studied congestion under the Jefferson County County Wide Transportation Plan.

      This plan did not find a need for a beltway.

      Jefferson County and the cities of Arvada, Westminster, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and Golden then agreed to a more comprehensive study, conducted by CH2MHill.  This study was to look at projected traffic up to the year 2015 and make recommendations how best to handle congestion.  But enough congestion for a beltway could not be found by 2015, so they extended the timeline to the year 2020.

      Their final report, dated September 2000, recommended arterial solutions, rather than a freeway, to solve congestion – which was noted to be to the east of SH-93 where Jefferson County and Arvada wished a freeway.

      Shucks.  That was the third time proponents had tried to get a beltway and had failed.

      So CH2MHill came out with another report entitled Final Report, this one dated January 2001.  It still recommended arterial solutions, but included the proviso that rights of way could be retained in the event that a freeway was needed to relieve traffic congestion some time in the future.  The right of way was recommended along Indiana and along SH-93.

      And for the third time, the developers were denied their beltway.

      Meanwhile, Golden developed and adopted the Muller Study, which is an engineering design of 4 lanes with limited access on SH-93, along with the corridor improvements on McIntyre, Indiana and Ward recommended by the Northwest Quadrant Feasibility Study, to solve congestion problems.

      Jefferson County and Arvada were busy at work also.  They formed a non-profit which looked into the possibility of a toll road along SH-93.  Doggone it, wouldn’t you know, tolling did not look financially feasible.  But Governor Owens came to the rescue, when he announced CDOT would conduct an Environmental Impact Study for the Northwest Corridor. From that, two distinct groups were formed:  the Corridor Consensus Committee, which consisted of local elected officials and a representative each from a business and an environment group; and the Technical Services Committee, composed of traffic engineers from these municipalities and a business and environmental representative.  These groups’ representatives repeatedly stated they were not interested in a beltway, but wanted congestion relief.  Their input was ignored.

      In fact, the cities of Louisville, Superior and Boulder along with Boulder County have all entered written objections to the manner in which the EIS was conducted and charge that these meetings were “skewed” towards a pre-ordained conclusion.  This has also been Golden’s contention and it is certainly borne out by my observations at the CCC and TSC meetings.

      CDOT itself has stated that “we are looking for system improvements rather than traffic reductions” for the Northwest Corridor EIS study.

      So why will is CDOT considering a billion dollar boondoggle, which will damage the quality of life in Fairmount and in Golden when CDOT’s own traffic modeling and toll studies show it is not needed and tolls will not cover the cost?  At a time when transportation funding is tight, there are more critical projects that an unnecessary beltway.  Even if it were a six to eight lane toll road, which is being considered, it would still have to be subsidized by our tax dollars while CDOT would charge the taxpayer tolls on top of their taxes!

      Is it a vanity beltway?

      Or is it just an economic pipe dream for the quadrant with the lowest projected growth in the metro area, much of which is Open Space?

      If this beltway is built, say goodbye to common sense and hello to greed from developers.

      And that hole in your pocketbook will just get larger.