Fifteen years ago, business leaders in Northern Colorado saw the problem with Colorado transportation funding.

After a bruising campaign in 1999 to sell TRANS bonds to fund highway construction across the state, it had become apparent there just wasn’t enough money to go around: Specifically, a highway project in the south metro-Denver area was living up to its carnivorous name and was eating up funding, well, like a T-Rex.

Yes, some Northern Colorado projects were completed with the funding, most notably the Berthoud Bypass which has shortened commuting times between Larimer and Boulder counties for many workers. Another of the projects still causes problems today: The expansion of I-25, which stopped at the Colo. 60 interchange northeast of Longmont and forced thousands of drivers each day to merge three lanes into two.

An article in the Nov. 1, 2002, Reporter-Herald encapsulated the issue.

Read more at The Loveland Reporter-Herald.