When Interstate 70’s heavy morning traffic into the mountains stretched into the afternoon, CDOT expected major problems on the Sunday-Monday return drive from the popular holiday skiing weekend. But perhaps in part because of those warnings, the problems didn’t occur.

Three West Slope transportation projects are going forward with new funding from revenues the state gets from commercial leases of federal lands for energy production. Road projects in Parachute, Grand Junction and Delta are sharing a $17 million pool of federal mineral leasing funds with a fourth project that will extend broadband communications lines in southwest Colorado.

The Federal Highway Administration this week approved Colorado’s last highway Recovery Act project, which means Colorado has now obligated all $385.6 million in highway funds nearly one month ahead of the March 2 deadline.

The Colorado Department of Transportation has put 40 highway and airport projects totaling $136.8 million on its wish list for federal grants in 2011.

With the possibility of a second wave of stimulus funding coming out of Washington, Colorado’s transportation planners are solidifying lists of shovel-ready projects that can quickly ride that wave from the drawing board to the ground.

The Summit County Citizens Voice reports that Colorado Department of Transportation officials have told Summit County commissioners that traffic stops at the Eisenhower Tunnel are for the safety of motorists, which is CDOT’s top priority.

A streetcar line on Colfax Avenue between downtown Denver and Aurora’s Fitzsimons medical campus may or may not prove to be a good idea. That answer depends on studies yet to be completed. But no study is needed to know that it’s not a good idea to divert money from fixing roads and unsafe bridges to help pay for it.

Fox31 News reports that Denver removed traffic signals on Tuesday at seven West Washington Park intersections and replaced them with four-way stops, a move residents say will make their neighborhood safer.

Residents have been fighting for 30 years to reduce high-speed traffic on the one-way couplet of Washington and Emerson streets, which feed traffic between Interstate 25 and Speer Boulevard. Signals came down on Washington at First, Virginia, Exposition and Kentucky avenues, and on Emerson at First, Virginia and Kentucky avenues.

All intersections through that stretch are now four way stops and the speed limit is reduced to 25 mph.

Go to Fox31 News to see the entire story and video.

The Denver Post reports that Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, plans to introduce a bill that would spend a portion of last year’s increased vehicle registration fees to a special district that would coordinate financing, construction and operation of a streetcar line on Colfax Avenue in Denver and Aurora.

The state began collecting higher registration fees after last year’s legislature passed the FASTER transportation measure to pay for highway, bridge and transit improvements.

Go to the Denver Post to see the entire article.

Adam Prince’s blog, Sure Why Not, notes that there will be a lot of unhappy people in many states next month when the U.S. Department of Transportation announces winners of TIGER transportation infrastructure discretionary grants, a part of President Obama’s stimulus program.

In a chart accompanying Prince’s blog, Colorado is shown as having submitted 30 grant requests totaling just over $1.1 billion. They include a request for up to $200 million to begin the first phase of bus-car pool-toll lanes on U.S. 36, and a $62.5 million request for safety and improvement work on CO 119 near Black Hawk.

TIGER stands for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery.