LOUISVILLE — Colorado Department of Transportation officials took another public flogging Thursday night from a crowd of about 300 gathered to get questions answered about CDOT’s plans to partner with a private firm to maintain and operate U.S. 36 between Boulder and Denver for the next 50 years.
At the onset of the second such public meeting in two nights, CDOT officials conceded they had failed to adequately educate the public on a pending deal last year with Plenary Roads Denver, a multinational six-company consortium, that allows the firm to collect revenues from toll lanes being built in both directions of the highway in exchange for operating the road and providing ice and snow removal services on U.S. 36 and parts of Interstate 25 until 2063.
“We thought we were communicating what was going on and why this deal would work,” CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford told the standing-room-only crowd inside the cavernous space of the former Louisville Sam’s Club building. “But clearly, given the attendance here tonight, we failed at doing so.”
The U.S. 36 Managed Lanes project, a $425 million endeavor that will add a toll/transit/high-occupancy vehicle lane in each direction of the highway, has been under construction since the summer of 2012.
The primary complaint of many in Thursday’s audience was the perceived secrecy of the contract with Plenary, and CDOT’s refusal to release more than a summary of a 600-page document.
“I know you’re frustrated. I’m frustrated,” State Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, told those in attendance. “Many of you know that I’ve expressed concern. My concern is we can’t see the contract. I’ve asked for it for some time now — months, actually.”
CDOT government relations director Herman Stockinger said the state, CDOT included, doesn’t release contracts that are still being negotiated and doesn’t disclose to the public how it plans to deliver a project.
“We follow what the legislative branch tells us to do. We follow that process,” Stockinger said. “Any good contract is going to be questioned by the general public. If they have concerns, they’ll be expressed.”
State Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette, said the contract needs to be reviewed.
“The bottom line is if we’re going to get into this deal, we need to make sure it’s vetted and that it’s a good deal for the public,” Foote said.
CDOT officials said the global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is working to redact the contract prior to possible release.
The selection of foreign-based Plenary also didn’t sit well with Thursday’s crowd. But, Ford said, CDOT “did not have a single company consortium that applied for this job that was solely based in the United States.”
Mike Cheroutes, director of the High-Performance Transportation Enterprise — created in 2009 as a government-owned business within CDOT — said the plan is something that CDOT is proud of.
“Given the nature of the road, given the fact that we want to keep freeflow in the managed lanes for the buses, the thought is that the option to do public financing was less valuable than going into the public-private partnership,” Cheroutes said. “CDOT does not have money in the bank to assume costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
However, CDOT will end up assuming the burden if Plenary defaults or declares bankruptcy — a revelation that drew a raucous response from the Louisville crowd.
CDOT maintains that the planning process was done with full public disclosure.
“The managed lanes solution was the preferred solution following a very public process,” Ford said.
Lafayette resident John Martin said the members of the public who showed up Thursday would disagree with Ford’s description of the process.
“This whole process is suspect. I find it suspect that this whole project has been planned in secret,” Martin said. “The people of northern Colorado voted for a train, not an L.A. freeway.”
Jeff Chu, a Superior resident and former member of the Superior Board of Trustees, said the formation of the High-Performance Transportation Enterprise itself begged questions.
“Creating boards always seems to be a means for circumventing the public process,” Chu said. “This appears to be an effort to drive people toward paid tolls.”
The deal with Plenary won’t be finalized until a financial agreement is signed later this month, Ford said, giving some of those in attendance hope that it isn’t too late to see changes made to the deal.
“The people of this state do not want this contract,” Boulder resident Patricia Lomas said. “How do we stop it?”
