.
Coloado
Transporation Summit Maps the Road
Ahead
by
Judah Ken Freed
Congressional
delegation joins Denver Chamber and RTD in
promoting state transportation plans.
.
Colorado
transportation thinking has come a long
way, and although the road ahead remains
long and difficult, Colorado will have the
money needed to complete planned highway
and rail projects. This was the consensus
from elected and appointed officials at
the fifth annual "Congressional
Transportation Summit" in Denver on August
20.
More of a sales
pitch for cooperation among transportation
interests than an interactive summit among
leaders, the session did provide a solid
overview of transportation projects in
Colorado.
With about 400
people attending the outdoor event
downtown, four times the turnout in
previous years, the program featured U.S.
Senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-CO,
Wayne Allard, R-CO, along with U.S.
Representatives Mark Udall, D-CD2, and Tom
Tancredo, R-CD6. The proceedings where
emceed by Joe Blake, president and CEO of
the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and
the Denver delegate (District 1) on the
Colorado Transportation
Commission.
Hosted by the Denver
Metro Chamber, the event in past years was
held in the chambers of the Colorado
Supreme Court, with only about 100 seats
available. This year's event migrated to
the City of Lights Pavilion, a white
canopy tent reminiscent of DIA, erected on
the Pepsi Center grounds by Universal
Lending, which donated facility usage for
the "summit." The competing investment
bank George K. Baum served as the
"presenting sponsor."
> Parked around
the tent was RTD's Boulder Stampede hybrid
gas-electric bus along with a new 16th
Street Mall shuttle. Driven there from
Denver International Airport was an United
Airlines airplane de-icer truck. And
Colorado Department of Transportation
(CDOT) provided a snowplow, two
snowblowers, and a howitzer canon used for
avalanche control in the high
country.
> The outdoor
location proved more atmospheric than
functional. Speakers struggled to be heard
over noise from neighboring Six Flags
Elitch Gardens, the traffic drone on
Auraria Parkway, and occasional passing
trains on adjacent tracks of the Union
Pacific Railroad. The audio interference
is evident on the videotape shot by Denver
City Government's Channel 8, available to
Mile Hi Cable customers.
> Joe Blake
kicked off the afternoon gathering by
saying hello from the rostrum to all the
business leaders and public officials he
knew in the audience, pointing to them,
making personal comments, conveying his
connections and importance to anyone
unaware of his connections and importance.
This show was his baby.
"About 70 percent of
the federal money for transportation
projects in Colorado come from the Highway
Users Trust Fund," Blake said, "and the
other 30 percent come through our
Congressional delegation. Here we
especially want to thank Ben Nighthorse
Campbell, who's the first senator to sit
on the appropriations committee in thirty
years."
Campbell spoke
briefly, telling the audience he had to
leave in a few minutes to catch a plane to
Washington for a trip to Africa for a tour
of AIDS hospitals. His concern is a shift
in funding priorities for Congress since
the 9/11 attacks, such as the emergency
supplemental to New York City and
allocations for homeland
defense.
"We now have to
fight to keep every dollar that had
previously been appropriated for
transportation," Campbell said. "This can
be a real problem when contracts have been
signed and construction has already
begun."
He spoke of $87
million allocated for Colorado highway
projects that had been cut in the House,
which he hoped would be restored in the
joint conference committee resolving
differences with the Senate bill. Budget
items included 70 million for metro light
rail expansion, $9 million for closed
circuit TV highway traffic flow
monitoring, $6 million for the Santa
Fe/C470 interchange.
On the aviation side
of Colorado transportation, in jeopardy is
more than $20 million for the 16,000-foot
sixth runway at DIA, needed for
international jumbo jets, plus at least $8
million for a military-style radar at
Eagle County Airport, a "pilot" project
that FAA had downgraded in priority since
9/11.
"We need a unified
program when talking to our Congressional
delegation, " said CDOT executive director
Tom Norton, speaking from one of the
audience microphones. "If we give our
delegation the total picture, they can do
a better job of getting more discretionary
funds for us over the years."
This raised an
objection from a woman in the audience,
not identified, who said the Regional
Transportation District (RTD) and the
Denver Regional Council of Governments
(DRCOG) are by law equal partners with
CDOT, and so highway interests should not
be given preferential treatment before
Congress.
Blake intervened
before this perennial turf war could
rekindle, changing the subject by calling
for another audience question, gaining an
inquiry about high speed rail from Pueblo
to Ft. Collins.
"I do not see how we
can keep putting this off," said Campbell,
mentioning the bullet trains of Japan and
Europe. "You can keep on building highway
lanes, and they will keep on getting too
crowded, usually by cars with only one
person in them. But look at how the
ridership for light rail has exceeded all
expectations.
"Of course, it's not
my job to decide about high speed rail in
Colorado," Campbell concluded. "My job is
getting the money for it." At this point
the senator departed for the airport,
there not yet being a transcontinental
bullet train he could catch at Union
Station.
Campbell's departure
left only Tancredo and Udall on the
platform, since Allard had not yet arrived
from a campaign press conference at the
state capital (see related story,
page????).
Tancredo noted that
Campbell's position on the appropriations
committee makes him the first among equals
in the Congressional delegation for
Colorado, paraphrasing socialist George
Orwell's line from Animal Farm about some
people being more equal than
others.
Udall spoke about
the need for support of the $15 billion
"One DOT" partnership between CDOT and RTD
for T-REX, the northwest parkway, E-470,
and other project. A united front also is
needed to support reauthorization of the
"TEA-21" transportation funding measure in
the next Congress, which currently is in
doubt.
"Just because funds
were approved in the past does not mean
they will actually be appropriated in the
future," Udall said. "We are hoping that
we won't have to start from scratch, and
if I accept a seat on the House
transportation committee, I can help
Colorado get its share of TEA-21 funds,
since I'm told committee members will get
the first bite of the apple, but I'll have
to let you know."
Allard finally
arrived, and in his brief remarks threw
his support behind full funding for light
rail and T-REX. "The U.S. Department of
Transportation is very impressed by
Colorado's progress on meeting the
construction timetable and staying within
budget," he said, "and that helps me in my
work on the Senate Authorization
Committee."
An audience member
the posed a question about alternative
fuel vehicles. Allard talked about the
need for more propane gas stations outside
of the metro Denver area, also calling for
a tax break to encourage business to
switch to propane or condensed natural
gas.
Udall further
encouraged all those in the audience
thinking about buying a new car to
purchase one of the new hybrid
gas-electric vehicles, which he did a year
ago. "I average 55 mile per gallon in the
city." For longer highway trips, gasoline
consumption drops to almost nothing as the
electrical power system takes
over.
"I see shifting to
alternative energy sources as a matter of
national security," said Tancredo. "This
may not happen in the near future, but we
need to move as quickly as possible."
Udall and Tancredo
took off, leaving Allard on the rostrum
for remarks by DRCOG chairperson Sharon
Richardson about progress on the Union
Station project, RTD board vice chair Bill
Elfenbein on the FasTrack effort for
simultaneous projects, and CDOT
chair-elect Joe Jehn on the "8th Pot"
strategic planning effort for future
projects.
Blake concluded the
afternoon with praise for the cooperative
spirit among the various transportation
planning bodies, another plug for the
Denver Chamber of Commerce, and an
invitation to stay for the reception
sponsored by TIAA-Cref, Coors, and Aramark
concessions -- salmon and sushi. Those who
stayed for the reception were blessed to
miss rush hour traffic.
Orginally
published in The Colorado
Statesman
August 2002
(c) 2002-03 by Judah Ken Freed
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