Tom Warne Report, 16 April 2013
The timeline for the U.S. 36 reconstruction project between Boulder and Denver is being accelerated by a public-private partnership that will cover the operations and maintenance of the route through 2063. Beginning later this year, a consortium of six companies known as Plenary Roads Denver, will complete the second phase of the U.S. 36 Managed Lanes project, maintain the entire corridor over the next 50 years and collect tolls from the managed lanes. The group will also provide maintenance on I-25, from U.S. 36 to downtown Denver.
This is the Colorado Department of Transportation’s first public-private partnership, necessary because of a 30 percent decline in the agency’s budget over the past five years. The state joins 24 other states that have used public-private partnerships to help build and finance nearly 100 transportation projects worth $54 billion, according to a 2011 report from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).
“This is a way for CDOT to complete a needed project in a fiscally constrained environment,” said Nicholas Farber, an enterprise specialist with the High Performance Transportation Enterprise division of CDOT. He said without investment from the private sector, and the ability to share the risks of the multimillion-dollar project, improvements to the highway would not be done for another 20 years.
CDOT began the first $312 million phase of the 3 ½-year project last summer to reconstruct and widen 17 miles of U.S. 36, including adding an express toll lane in each direction, which will also serve the half-dozen bus-rapid transit stations along the corridor. Built in 1952, the corridor has 90,000 to 100,000 commuters daily. Population along the route is predicted to rise by 28 percent, and employment by 53 percent by the year 2035.
The 6-mile second phase will begin this fall, with an estimated price tag of $113 million and is scheduled for completion in fall 2015. Plenary Roads Denver is comprised of The Plenary Group, Ames Construction, Granite Construction, HDR, maintenance provider Transfield Services and financial advisor Goldman Sachs.
