Colorado

In the Denver Colorado area the E-470 Public Highway Authority are raising their posted maximum speeds to 75mph from the present 70mph (to 121km/hr from 113km/hr) taking the posted number somewhat closer to actual traffic speeds. On about two-thirds of the highway 85% of the traffic is at present traveling at 78mph, 126km/hr or less (orange on maps).

At Colorado's E470 tollroad they say they've just passed the 3/4 million mark in transponders in use. They passed the half million mark March 2008, so in three years they added the extra quarter million.  Some of this appears to be the result of going all-electronic.

E470 Public Highway Authority in the Denver area has a substantially new board following local government elections. And it has a new board chairman, Frank Weddig, a commissioner from Arapahoe County which is located across the central segment of the tollroad just south of I-70.

John McCuskey, acting executive director (ED) of E-470 was appointed full executive director by the tollroad's board on Dec 9. McCuskey, 60, has been acting-chief at the Denver area pike since the sudden death-on-the-job of longtime exec-director, Ed DeLozier in April this year.  

The succession is undramatic.

Jefferson County is looking for a developer/concessionaire to take on the first build of the Jefferson Parkway, another stage in the development of a belt route for the Denver metro area, and an important north south connector for the county. The Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority (JPPHA) has scheduled a "Bidders' Conference" in the county offices in Arvada CO, December 14.

The E-470 Public Highway Authority (E470) board of directors decided recently they'd take advantage of all-electronic tolling to do annual toll increases. Traditionally with cash-handling, tollers have attempted to keep their tolls changes to quarters - avoiding the need to handle awkward combinations coins with dimes and nickels - so they have tended to do the larger quarter-related toll adjustment every three years or so.

The last toll collector in Colorado handed in their coin tray for the last time 10pm Dec 31 as the Northwest Parkway went cashless with all-electronic tolling. The parkway's big sister E470 went cashless in the first half of 2009, and the last cash was collected July 3. I-25 HOT Lanes operated by Colorado DOT have always been cashless.

Doug Watt a visitor to Denver was not impressed by service on the Northwest Parkway. "You are the most rinky dink operation I have seen in my life," he declared in an email to the Parkway. Watt said he "sat forever in a line of cars" as each driver tried to figure out an IOU form that is left in a rack beside a booth for motorists using the tollroad between 10pm and 6am when the mainline plaza is unmanned.

Colorado's Governor Bill Ritter has signed into law SB108 giving new powers to state bodies to organize and authorize tolling. The law abolishes the existing Colorado Tolling Enterprise (CTE) and puts in its place a so-called High Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE).

A six month old public toll highway authority is just a few weeks away from issuing a request for expressions of interest for a toll concession for the design, finance, construction and operations of Jefferson Parkway a 20km (13 mile) tollroad northwest of Denver. The Jefferson Parkway is a missing link in the '470 beltway' around the Denver area. It will go from CO128 in Broomfield to CO93 at W58Av north of Golden (see map nearby.)