The Colorado Department of Transportation has begun another resurfacing project in the San Luis Valley that will improve US 160 east of Del Norte. This project is made possible with $ 7.5 million in funding from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA), as well an additional $482,000 in CDOT resurfacing funds.

“We had a number of great ARRA projects this past construction season, with many winning state and national awards for quality,” CDOT Region 5 Transportation Director Richard Reynolds said. “We also had great prices and these savings allowed us to fund this resurfacing project on US 160 west of Del Norte. In addition to repaving almost 15 miles of US 160, we will be adding Americans with Disability Act-approved sidewalk ramps to aid access from the highway to Del Norte’s sidewalks.”

Fox21 in Colorado Springs reports that the Colorado Department of Transportation has recently been working on a study concerning the future of Powers Boulevard.

Things they have been looking at include ways to reduce current and future traffic congestion on Powers. One of the proposals includes turning the road into a freeway between Woodmen Road and the Colorado Springs Airport.

So far the process has included holding open houses, mailing newsletters, and having individual meetings with local residents.

Concrete repairs on C-470 between I-25 and Santa Fe Drive will once again take place this weekend and next week. This weekend, crews will work from 8 p.m. on Friday, April 9th to 5 a.m. on Monday, April 12th, weather permitting. During this time, closures will be in place on C-470 and major delays are expected.

More than $390 million in road construction projects on state highways will be underway this year in the metro Denver area, with more than a third of the total funded by the federal stimulus program.

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.

CDOT Media Advisory

4th Street Bridge Trail closure begins this week

March 29, 2010 – ADVISORY – Southeastern Colorado/CDOT Region 2 – PUEBLO – The Colorado Department of Transportation is closing the Arkansas River Trail, under the 4th Street Bridge (State Highway 96), beginning on Thursday, April 1.

Safety considerations will not allow the path to remain open as demolition work begins on the old bridge structure.

The trail will be closed around-the-clock, including weekends. A signed detour will be place while the trail is closed. It is scheduled to reopen on June 1, 2010.

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 Broomfield Enterprise reports that officials from Broomfield and the Colorado Department of Transportation will meet Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Transportation to discuss getting more money for the $1.2 billion expansion of the highway.

The project will widen U.S. 36 between Denver and Boulder, rebuild the Wadsworth interchange, add carpool and toll lanes and bus stops and build a bike trail near the highway. The massive price tag means it will have to be built in phases.

Federal officials will be in the Denver area this week to review plans for the highway corridor and discuss ways of “leveraging” the $10 million federal stimulus grant the project received in February, Broomfield transportation manager Debra Baskett said.

The meeting is a follow-up on CDOT`s request for $300 million from the federal government`s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant program.

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 Durango Herald reports that a year-long $9 million highway project partially funded by the president’s stimulus package is now underway on U.S. 160, and drivers who use the road should get ready for possible 10-minute waits.

This week, the Colorado Department of Transportation is relocating utilities and clearing material from the sides of U.S. Highway 160 from mileposts 92.9 to 94.8, just east of the Florida River, so crews with Four Corners Materials of Cortez can move the county roads 222/223 intersection one mile to the east.