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Volume 3, Issue 20
September 27 - October 10, 2001
One Last Thing
bucky d. p.
CDOT...
RUN?
A full-size, money-hungry, dinosaur of
highway-crunching destruction will be
turned loose this week and it should
leave you wanting to run. The
Transportation Expansion Project (T-REX)
is scheduled to begin just in time
for the preempts of the holiday season.
Hopefully your gift list includes your
desire for a nice new pair of sneakers,
because that will no doubt be the
quickest way to and from work.
One can be cynical of this new project.
We have all seen how great and convenient
the carpool lanes on I-25 and
hi-way 36 have been. Many will say
that four lanes of space wasted with
concrete barriers and flagging devices
for one to two lanes of traffic is not
only not efficient, but a total waste of
money that could have been better
spent on researching the mating behaviors
of the platypus. The carpool lane
project is one of many great highway
projects to emerge from the 1990's. Of
course, all utilized the best breakthrough
technology known to man
while crossing the prairies on wagon
trail.
The Colorado Department of
Transportation (CDOT) bumped heads,
or as they like to call it collaborated,
with the Regional Transportation
District (RTD) while developing this
"bold new direction for transportation."
This project is supposed to be the
next step in an evolution from an aging
I-25 and outdated transportation system
to what would have to be assumed,
by name alone, to be just plain archaic.
Funding of the $1.67 billion project did
not come about because of new or
increased taxes. Where the money
came from is almost as mysterious as
the distinction of the dinosaurs themselves,
or even better, as mysterious as
the ongoing non-repaired pothole on
13th Avenue in Denver.
The T-REX project is supposed to
increase mobility, enhance accessibility
options, and improve safety to the
heavily congested business corridor.
This includes the addition of light rail
systems along I-25 and I-225, reconstruction
of interchanges and bridges,
plus more bicycle and pedestrian
access.. Since most cars in Denver do
not come equipped with flotation
devices, T-REX will also offer a better
drainage system than the one that is
currently in place. The only thing lacking
in the whole project is just the one
thing that really would help, more highway.
Such a project deserves the name T-REX.
In the film "Jurassic Park" all the
horror starts when the T-rex enters
from stage left. Apparently Denver's
horror will began when T-REX had the
through the conveniences of a net connection.
The "portal" web site is useful
to T-REX's own Public Relations and
Marketing departments, but does not
go much further. The website includes
a variety of information that all relates
to how screwed you are if you will
have to travel the highway system from
now until sometime in the year 2006
while T-REX is munching away concrete
and dollars.
Website designers of the T-REX website
did do something nice for the user----
you can customize the web site to
meet your exact demands for color and
layout, because that is important. You
can change font sizes and settings and
save them! So, when you make the
time to log onto the site, it will be the
custom crafted reminder of our city's
commitment to speed. An Internet connection
in your car is highly recommended
if you will have to travel this
corridor. One really can't expect too
much from this website though. It was
clearly put in place so the label over
the whole project could be called "hi-tech."
So while teleportation devices are the
only "hi-tech" Denver residents will be
dreaming of this fall, we should also
expect a reason to buy running shoes, a
bicycle, and our own four year plan of
alternate transportation schemes . All
for the excitement of traffic jams, huge
delays, concrete, dirt and very little
blacktop.
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