Intermountain TPR explains how counties feed project priorities into CDOT funding process

Dana Wood, mobility director for the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, Mark Rogers of CDOT and Brian Pettit, chair of the Intermountain Transportation Planning Region, told Lake County commissioners at a work session that the IMTPR collects local project requests, ranks priorities and advises CDOT and the Statewide Transportation Advisory Committee (STAC) before the Transportation Commission programs funds.

The IMTPR representatives said the region is finishing a 2050 long-range plan and is developing the related 10-year plan that begins to assign dollars; the four-year Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is the legally constrained document that programs construction funding. "The long-range plan does not have fiscal dollars tied to it," Mark Rogers said. "The 10-year plan starts to have dollars actually tied to it," and the STIP is where those dollars are programmed into construction and development stages.

Why it matters: commissioners asked how to ensure local projects — including roundabout and safety work on U.S. 24, State Highway 91 and State Highway 82 — are considered. IMTPR officials said project sponsors (counties and municipalities) submit projects to the TPR; the TPR prioritizes regionally and forwards priorities to CDOT and the Transportation Commission, which make final funding decisions.

Rogers and Pettit described how funding flows and limits county flexibility. Rogers said CDOT's annual budget is roughly $2 billion statewide, with about 60% federal and 40% state sources, and that a large portion of those funds flow through the Highway Users Tax Fund (HUTF). He said some programs are tightly constrained for asset management — bridge, culvert and surface treatments — and therefore cannot be used for noneligible items like building shoulders unless supplemented by regional priority program (RPP) funds or other special programs.

Officials described a small pool of discretionary regional funds: the statewide Regional Priority Program (RPP) totals about $50 million per year; Region 3 (the Intermountain region) receives roughly $7 million a year to allocate among 15 counties. Pettit used Vail Pass as an example of a large project that used RPP money early in design and later in construction.

Commissioners asked how to stay informed about planning and construction. Rogers and Dana Wood pointed to named contacts: Jason Smith (regional transportation director), program engineer Karen Berdley and resident engineer John Kronholm, all for Region 3; they also noted Commissioner Barbara Bowman represents District 7 on the Transportation Commission. Rogers encouraged Lake County to participate in IMTPR meetings and STAC or to contact Brian Pettit to have items elevated for STAC consideration. He said meeting recordings and agendas are available on YouTube.

Commissioners raised recent legislation and budget uncertainty. County commissioner Lauren asked whether Senate Bill 257 and other state budget actions would affect regional projects. Rogers said some programs were reduced in the budget process — for example, Revitalized Main Streets funding and some MMOF funding had been reduced — but he could not specify Lake County impacts until bills are signed and CDOT's budget allocations are finalized.

Commissioners also asked about staffing on transportation committees and opportunities to have citizens or county appointees serve on advisory committees. Wood said counties have a voting member on the IMTPR and noted additional advisory boards such as a multimodal community advisory board and Safe Routes to School groups that stakeholders can join.

The IMTPR representatives encouraged Lake County to bring project proposals and concerns to IMTPR meetings and offered to hold future IMTPR meetings closer to Lake County to reduce travel burdens for county representatives.