The Denver Post - Editorial June 16, 2008 (online) Golden's ticket is working together: If Golden wants to limit the effect of the completion of the metro beltway, it should work with (not against) its neighbors.

Letters in response to this editorial: Toll road would offer few traffic benefits Some in Arvada are opposed to the tollway, too Traffic demand won’t be enough to pay for tollway Parkway pains

By Denver Post Editorial Staff

The recent decision of the Colorado Department of Transportation to halt its Northwest Corridor environmental study doesn't mean the end of efforts to complete the metro area beltway.

Far from it.

CDOT has spent $13.7 million since 2003 studying highway options in the quadrant between U.S. 36 and C-470.

Last week, it put that effort on hold, concluding there is "no funding identified to build a preferred alternative in the foreseeable future."

In a minor triumph of diplomatic language, the highway planners also said "a lack of consensus among local governments and citizen groups made it difficult to move forward in determining what transportation improvements might be needed."

Translated into plain talk, that means: "Golden will fight fang and claw to prevent its neighbors from completing the beltway project."

Golden, not content with being the Jefferson County seat, seems to be bidding to become the NIMBY capital of Colorado. The city went to absurd lengths to block construction of a high-definition television tower on Lookout Mountain, well outside its jurisdiction. But unless it adopts a more neighborly stance with its neighbors, Golden's war against the beltway could end as badly as its fight against the tower, which literally triggered an act of Congress permitting the facility to be built.

This time, Golden's problem isn't far-off Washington, but the determination of its neighbors, Arvada, Broomfield and Jefferson County, to ease the growing traffic congestion in the northwest quadrant.

Rather than dooming the beltway project, the shortage of state highway funds lamented by CDOT only gives more impetus to efforts to craft a public/private partnership to bridge the 20-mile gap between the existing Northwest Parkway in Broomfield and the intersection of C-470 and Interstate 70 at Golden.

Arvada, Broomfield and Jeffco recently formed a public highway authority to explore ways of privately financing $813 million worth of new construction in the quadrant, including 10 miles of new tollway from 128th Avenue to 58th Avenue. Such a project would probably entice the Northwest Parkway to extend its lanes south to link up with the new tollway — leaving only a 7-mile gap remaining. The plan envisions filling in that gap by improving highways 93 and U.S. 6 through Golden as a free, four-lane parkway with speeds through town limited to 45 mph.

In a best-case scenario, an investor such as Brisa Auto-Estradas, operators of the Northwest Parkway, might be willing to front the entire cost of the improvements — including $300 million for the final 7 miles of free highway linking with C-470 — in return for rights to operate the new toll road and feed its traffic into Brisa's existing Northwest Parkway.

In the worst case, from Golden's perspective, the beltway might be extended to the edge of the city, leaving traffic to filter through to C-470 and E-470 as best it can.

Golden should work with its neighbors in a cooperative effort to complete the beltway. As the sports adage goes, if you don't play the game, you don't make the rules.

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