The I-70 mountain corridor mess.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: RUNDLES [wrap-up] - Editorial

Lord knows why I even decided to look into what's being done to fix the 1-70 corridor through the mountains.

The traffic problems from Floyd Hill, through the Eisenhower Tunnels, into Summit County and on into Vail have been vexing for many, many years, and I knew when I got into this that I would find study groups, more study groups, Environmental Impact Studies, "stakeholder" meetings, yadda, yadda, yadda.

In other words, this being a problem needing to be addressed by government--the state government, the federal government, and all the county and municipal governments throughout the corridor--I already knew that, really, nothing is being done.

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As a friend of mine put it, "You won't be alive when solutions to the congestion of 1-70 are implemented." That may be the bright side; I intend to be around for a long, long time.

But, c'mon. I am not a big skier, and I make too few visits to the mountains, particularly in the winter. But two recent weekend trips--one just a Saturday trip to Keystone for ice skating, and one a weekend jaunt to Glenwood and Sunlight--reminded me why I don't frequent the mountains. I hate heavy traffic, and in the whole world you'd be hard-pressed to find heavier traffic than certain times on Interstate 70 from Floyd Hill through Silverthorne and back. And statistics show it's even worse on summer weekends.

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I made several calls to agencies and authorities and found what I expected: a 2008 Collaborative Effort report, first launched in 1998 and restarted in 2007, that out-lines a broad "multimodal" vision, which must await the completion of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), which has already been eight years in the making with no hope for an acceptable final report before, at the earliest, late 2010.

And, since a major consensus is that any improvements to the 1-70 mountain corridor should include and Advanced Guideway System (essentially, some sort of rail), you can push dates for any noticeable improvement out years--my guess would be 15 years if we're lucky, 25 if things go well.

Look, I'm a rail guy. I long supported light rail in Denver, and love it, and I am firmly on board for expanding the Denver-area light rail system. But I also know a thing or two about rail, or Guideway Systems, that don't speak well for relief in the 1-70...