Commentary By Tony Milo
Executive Director of the Colorado Contractors Association

Coloradans own a conservatively estimated $500 million per year unfunded liability on public bridge, highway, interchange and tunnel infrastructure. While a staggering sum in any single year, the cumulative effect year after year undermines road safety and our state’s economic recovery. That Colorado’s people, families, businesses and leaders continue accumulating a $500 million annual deferred maintenance debt is unsustainable.

That $500 million annual buildup, however, disguises the full magnitude of the “quiet crisis” Coloradans now confront.

If we intend to significantly reduce traffic congestion, establish better connections between regions within the state, improve local roads and strategically expand transit options, Coloradans need to invest three times that amount – a conservatively estimated $1.5 billion – in new, annually dedicated, inflation adjusted revenue.

On behalf of the Colorado Contractors Association (CCA), our 400 construction, equipment, goods and service provider companies, and the over 30,000 workers CCA members collectively employ, I invite you to join the men and women of CCA in consciously choosing a path to enhance the quality of life and economic vitality for all Coloradans.

CDOT commissioners on Wednesday gave tentative approval to a list of 41 safety-related highway maintenance projects that would be funded over the next year with a $79.83 million portion of Colorado’s higher auto registration fees under the FASTER bill.

The Colorado Transportation Commission, which is the 11-member appointed board overseeing the Colorado Department of Transportation, will consider a final vote on the projects next month. With publication of the list, the picture becomes clearer where the state will invest the extra revenue from the controversial fees.

Go on a virtual road trip around Colorado with Kevin Flynn’s Inside Lane and see where your higher auto registration fees are going. Take this tour of the 124 poor-rated bridges on CDOT’s system, the bridges earmarked for repair or replacement with the projected $100 million in new annual revenue for the bridge fund from the FASTER legislation.

Open the article for a bigger screen; play the video, then go to the map below to see these bridges, their locations, ages, ratings and where they place on the “road” to replacement — from those not yet on the programmed path for funding all the way to the ones already under reconstruction.

FASTER Bridge Tour of Colorado from K J Flynn on Vimeo.

View Colorado’s Poor-Rated State Highway Bridges in a larger map

Most are big, one is small, some are old, and some are very old.

They all need replacement, but there isn’t enough money right now to complete the work.

They are the five worst state highway bridges in metro Denver, at the top of a list of 128 bridges that would be repaired or replaced with some of the money from Colorado’s controversial new hikes in auto registration fees.

The Colorado Transportation Commission is proposing to allocate more than $63.6 million in first-year bridge repair revenue from the FASTER bill’s increased auto registration fees to 17 deficient bridges.

The oldest bridge on the list is the dramatic cliff-hugging Million Dollar Highway bridge over Bear Creek Falls south of Ouray, shown above. It was built in 1922.

The bridges are scattered throughout 11 of the state’s 64 counties. A vote on the plan will come at Thursday’s formal commission meeting.

Fifteen of the bridges are outside the Denver metro area, which has 40 percent of the structurally deficient bridges. But some of them already are under repair from easting and stimulus funds while a few – particularly the 1.2-mile Interstate 70 viaduct through Denver’s Swansea and Elyria neighborhoods – cost so much they outstrip FASTER’s ability to produce.

The commission, which is the governing body of the Colorado Department of Transportation, apportioned the fiscal year 2010 funds during a workshop this afternoon. The work won’t actually start until early next year, as the funds come in and design work can go out to bid.