Panel passes measure to add toll booths on I-70

DENVER - You might want to save some change the next time you buy a bar of snowboard wax: Toll booths on Interstate 70 moved one step closer to reality Thursday.

The Senate Transportation Committee approved a measure by Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, to establish toll booths on each side of the Eisenhower Tunnel, charge a fee of as much as $5 each way and use the revenue to improve the congested road. SB213 heads next to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

After being besieged by complaints from 37 I-70 corridor residents, committee members rejected a separate proposal by Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, that would have charged fees only to low-occupancy vehicles traveling the road at peak times. Legislators questioned several aspects of that plan, including its $104 million price tag.

They also questioned McElhany's proposal after residents complained they did not have input into it and predicted it could slow traffic along the mountain highway even more and hurt area businesses.

Committee members voted 5-2 for the toll booths, saying that after decades of talk about improving the drive time on one of Colorado's major corridors, McElhany's plan is at least worth discussing.

"This bill works for people who want to do something," McElhany said. "If the answer is to do nothing along the I-70 corridor, this is not your bill."

Some 12 million cars pass through the Eisenhower Tunnel each year, including crowds that back up for hours heading to the mountains on Friday nights and coming back Sunday afternoons. Most details on where and how to set up toll booths would be left to state and federal highway officials, and the feds would have to grant a waiver for the state to toll existing lanes. The bill ensures revenues would go to the 27-mile section of the road between Floyd Hill and the tunnel.

Costs for implementing McElhany's plan have not been determined.

Local residents savaged the bill and the noncollaborative process used to create the legislation. Summit County Chamber of Commerce President Eric Turner argued that toll booths would drive tourists to other states, and a number of town officials said that while tolls may be needed as a future fix for the highway, they should not be the first step.

A group of protestors gathered on the west steps of the Capitol before the hearing, holding signs proclaiming "Tolls are for Trolls" and "Don't Mess with the Mountains."

Greg Fulton, executive director of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, said that not only would tolls drive up the cost of goods delivered by truck drivers, but the provision in the bill that would exempt residents of some mountain counties from paying tolls is also a violation of the federal commerce clause.

"Senator McElhany said this is all of Colorado's problem. Then why isn't all of Colorado paying to fix the problem, instead of just travelers on I-70?" Summit County Sheriff John Minor said.

The committee also approved a proposed constitutional amendment from McElhany that would reserve all of the sales tax revenues the state receives from car sales and vehicle-related products for highway improvements - a total estimated about $293 million a year. Much of that already goes to roads, but Senate Concurrent Resolution 2 would stop the increasingly common practice by which legislators can divert some of those funds to other programs.

CONTACT THE WRITER: (303) 837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com.