Apparently the need to modernize hundreds of miles of hazardous state highways is being overlooked during discussions related to highway financing. These roads lack shoulders, guardrails and should have full width bridges, passing lanes and in some cases improved vertical and horizontal alignments. At the current rate of improvement, drivers will be using these same unsafe highways for the next 50 years.

Somewhere in the billion dollar yearly Colorado Department of Transportation budget, one would think more than the current pittance could be applied to a solution for this problem, which is an embarrassment to our fine state. Currently, most of the attention is directed to the urban areas.

The only solution to this funding shortfall is earmarking a portion of the current fuel taxes, or an additional tax, directed to modernization of obsolete segments of the rural state highway system. A successful example of earmarking was the completion of the interstate highway system, where a budget provided each year could only be spent on interstate highways. Since this is a statewide problem, why not pass a small dedicated temporary sales tax which over a span of, say, 15 years, would greatly enhance the safety of driving for all rural highway users in Colorado.

It’s time for rural residents to rise up and say, “We ain’t goin’ to take this anymore.”

DICK PROSENCE
Meeker

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.