Technicians with the Colorado Department of Transportation were performing operational testing on Interstate 25 express lane signs over the weekend, which led to a misconception that the agency had activated toll charges on the 18-mile stretch of freeway between Monument and Castle Rock, according to CDOT officials.

A photo of an electronic express lane sign, taken by The Gazette on Sunday, displayed a toll fee of $1.75 to Larkspur and $2.75 to Castle Rock.

But CDOT spokesman Tim Hoover said that not only have the tolls not been activated, but that final toll prices have yet to be decided upon.

“We would never spring tolls on the public without warning,” Hoover said. “We’ll give the public multiple weeks warning before tolls go into effect.”

When the commuter lane was added to the interstate in 2022, CDOT announced a testing period during which toll fees would be waived. That testing period is still in effect as the state agency performs quality checks on equipment and does traffic studies to determine the ideal amounts to charge motorists, officials said. If the tolls are too expensive, motorists won’t use them often enough. But if prices are too low, nearly everyone will use them, negating their effectiveness as a faster alternative to regular lanes.

CDOT technicians were reportedly running several tests on the signs over the weekend. At the same time, a placard alerting drivers that the tolls are waived became loose and had to be temporarily removed from the sign on the northbound side of the interstate, Hoover said.

“The only way to test these signs is by feeding numbers through them,” he said. “That’s why some drivers saw numbers on the sign over the weekend. But again, we would never spring tolls on our drivers without several weeks notice.”

Once the agency proposes toll prices, they have to be approved by the Colorado Transportation Investment Office. CDOT officials expect that to happen before the end of the year.

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