The federal government is set to send over $500 million to improve highway transit in northern Colorado.

U.S. Department of Transportation officials announced the agency’s Build America Bureau has provided a $501 million in low-interest loan to the Colorado Transportation Investment Office on behalf of CDOT as part of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, according to the release.

The move comes as the state’s north-to-south, Interstate 25, has gotten a lot more crowded with cars in recent years.

I-25, between Denver and Fort Collins, sees more than 200,000 vehicles a day, with some areas stretching toward 340,000 average annual daily traffic, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. 

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These car-loaded lanes can cause significant traffic times. Denver was ranked 17th-worst in the U.S. by INRIX’s Global Traffic Scorecard for the most congested urban areas in 2022.

Colorado plans to use these funds to improve a 62-mile corridor of I-25 between Denver and Fort Collins. This work will include adding 52 miles of express lanes, new mobility hubs, rehabilitating critical rail crossings, allowing for safer crossing of wildlife and will “encourage a modal shift to transit, carpooling, and bicycle/pedestrian travel,” the statement said. 

The work is all part of CDOT’s $1.6 billion I-25 Central Express Lanes project. The plan is to both improve travel times on the highway and make public transportation more efficient, adding park and ride and mobility hubs at the Kendal Parkway and Colorado 56 interchange, and finishing reconstruction of 13 bridges, six interchanges and rail crossings.

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The plan is to have three lanes of traffic, both ways, the entire way between Denver and Fort Collins by 2028. The third lane will be express for the majority of the trip.

The mobility hubs will be placed in the center of I-25, allowing for buses to pick up passengers without leaving the express lane.

“The bus rapid transit improvements are expected to reduce travel time by 10-15 minutes, greatly enhancing benefits of transit trips,” said Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy Carlos Monje Jr.

The northern corridor of I-25 remains a priority for the state. CDOT is planning $4.6 billion in investments through 2060 and the new loan is set to “accelerate construction by nearly a decade and avert more than $250 million in project delay costs,” the federal department’s release said. 

Jared Fiel, regional communications manager for CDOT, said that toll revenue will go directly to paying back the loan and maintaining the roadway infrastructure.

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“The loan allows us to use the funds the project would have cost elsewhere in the state,” Fiel said.

“The entire region is growing and innovative solutions such as the one used on this project will help ease today’s congestion and prepare the region for future growth and associated economic development,” said Bureau Executive Director Morteza Farajian.