The Telluride Watch reports that drivers who regularly use Red Mountain Pass can expect major road construction starting this August when the Colorado Department of Transportation will begin a $5.7 million Bear Creek Bridge replacement project on U.S. Hwy. 550 south of Ouray.

Phase I of the project is expected to begin on Aug. 1 and end approximately Nov. 1, CDOT Region 5 Resident Engineer Ed Archuleta told the Ouray County Commissioners on Monday.

A total of $25.3 million in state highway projects funded by the FASTER program is in CDOT’s pipeline, including replacement of four wooden bridges along a state highway where volunteer firefighters died in 2008 crossing where a fifth wooden bridge had been destroyed in a wildfire.

By a vote of 38 to 27, the Colorado House of Representatives voted on April 2 to approve HB 10-1387, which seeks to annually divert approximately $20 million ̶ $200 million over the coming decade ̶ away from the Highway User Tax Fund (HUTF), which pays for bridge and highway repairs, to the Department of Revenue for administering/issuing driver’s licenses and associated examinations, renewals, permits, and State identification cards.

Vehicle registrations in Colorado took a slight drop in January compared with three months earlier – a statistic that’s in line with coming up short on revenue in the FASTER program – and trailer registrations account for 30 percent of the decline. State figures for total registrations showed 5,067,035 license plates registered in Colorado as of Jan. 31. That is 37,056 fewer than were registered three months earlier, as of Oct. 31.

The Denver Business Journal reports that the Colorado Legislature’s one attempt to roll back late fees established by the “FASTER” transportation-funding bill is on the brink of dying in a dispute over exactly how many trailer owners should get those breaks.

House members voted Friday to reject the Senate’s attempt to limit the fines paid by owners of trailers of any size who turn in their vehicle-registration fees late. The Senate is now in the position of acceding to the House’s more limited fee-break proposal or killing the bill altogether, likely finishing the session without any substantial changes to one of the biggest bills of 2009.

The low bidder on the first bridge replacement project funded by the FASTER bill’s increase in vehicle registration fees was the one closest to the job. Walsenburg Sand and Gravel Co. bid $1,837,111 to replace the bridge over Turkey Creek on CO 69 near Farisita. The project includes realignment of a half mile of the highway at the bridge. Walsenburg and Farisita are both in Huerfano County.

The Denver Business Journal reports that Democratic lawmakers killed four more bills sponsored by Republicans that were aimed at modifying the controversial late fees that were part of last year’s FASTER bill to raise money for bridge and road repair. Two bills making changes to the fees, sponsored by Democrats, have gone forward.

The beefed-up late fees that came with last year’s FASTER bill made a lot of procrastinating motorists angry but they have also had a much quieter and positive effect. More and more people are registering their vehicles on time rather than letting their expired registrations lag.

Lawmakers in the Colorado House passed some exceptions Tuesday to the controversial late fees in last year’s FASTER bill. The changes would allow clerks a bit more discretion in waiving the fees, exempt commercial trailer owners if they can document they had idled that part of their fleet, and put a $10 maximum late fee on non-motorized vehicles 2,000 pounds or less.

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.