Memo to gubernatorial candidates: If you’re coming to talk at a convention of Colorado road builders, expect to be asked what you would do to address the crisis in funding transportation improvements.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the Democratic candidate for governor, and former Congressman Scott McInnis, seeking the Republican nomination, appeared separately at the convention of the Colorado Contractors Association. During Q and A sessions following their talks, each one missed opportunities to lay out specifics about what they would do for transportation funding.

Nevertheless, both Hickenlooper and McInnis said the straightforward solution to providing stable, predictable and reliable funding to transportation infrastructure is simply to put together your best package of taxes, fees or other revenue measures to accomplish the mission, and then make the case to voters that it’s all necessary.

Rendering shows a corner of South Broadway, currently under construction and funded in part by the Hickenlooper’s 2007 Better Denver Bond Program.

When John Hickenlooper hits the road to campaign for the governor’s office, the Denver mayor will get an up-close look at the maintenance and improvement needs of the state’s transportation network – and is likely to get an earful about what the state should do about its transportation funding crisis.

But Hickenlooper’s drive straight into the Colorado governor’s race will also have advocates of sustainable transportation infrastructure investments looking over his record for signs of how he might approach the crisis.

While the Denver mayor was famously known for his all-out support of the metro-wide rapid transit expansion FasTracks by the Regional Transportation District, his administration is moving more bricks and mortar in Denver at the moment through the 2007 Better Denver Bond Program.