Skip to main content

Engineering firm unveils I-70 improvement project

International engineering firm Parsons Corp has unveiled its proposed US$3.5 billion project to ease traffic on Interstate 70 through the central mountains in Eagle County, Colorado. Parsons had submitted an unsolicited proposal to Colorado Department of Transportation in 2011. The three-phase project would include tolled express lanes and a bus rapid transit system and be completed as soon as 2021. The express lanes would be reversible to accommodate peak traffic flows to and from the mountains. The proje
July 29, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
International engineering firm 4089 Parsons Corp has unveiled its proposed US$3.5 billion project to ease traffic on Interstate 70 through the central mountains in Eagle County, Colorado.  Parsons had submitted an unsolicited proposal to 5701 Colorado Department of Transportation in 2011.
 
The three-phase project would include tolled express lanes and a bus rapid transit system and be completed as soon as 2021.
 
The express lanes would be reversible to accommodate peak traffic flows to and from the mountains. The project would also straighten some curves on the interstate and resurface the existing lanes.
 
Tunnel bores would have to be added at places such as the Eisenhower Tunnel, and parts of the new lanes would be suspended like the current highway is through Glenwood Canyon.
 
"This is a very, very aggressive schedule," said Jim Bemelen, Parsons' mountain corridor manager. "It's unlikely, but the project could be completed by 2021."
 
"We are very concerned about minimising the footprint as much as possible," said Ralph Trapani, Parsons program director.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Florida's free flow tolling eases congestion, improves safety
    July 24, 2012
    A decade since Florida's Turnpike Enterprise first deployed electronic toll collection, the organisation's Director of Toll Operations Rick Nelson and Tom S. Knuckey of PBS&J look at progress. A decade on from the deployment of Florida's Turnpike Enterprise's state-wide SunPass pre-paid Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) programme, transponder sales have ballooned from 5,000 to more than 4,000,000. Over 70 per cent of the state's turnpike drivers participate in the system and transponder sales continue to gro
  • The case for tolling the Interstates
    April 20, 2012
    Speaking at an event organised by the IBTTA last week to an audience of federal and state transportation officials, policy experts, financial analysts, and representatives from engineering firms, technology companies, and transportation facility operators, Ed Regan of Wilbur Smith Associates articulated a clear case for giving states flexibility to toll existing interstate highways.
  • Making the case for interstate tolling
    May 30, 2014
    A provision in the Grow America Act, introduced to Congress last month by Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, proposes lifting a decades-old ban on tolling existing interstate general purpose lanes. According Daniel Papiernik, HNTB Corporation's mid-Atlantic toll services leader, writing in Roll Call, recent opposition to the proposal is short-sighted. He claims that relying on revenues derived from the gas tax is simply an unsustainable way of funding the nation’s aging roads, bridges and tunnels
  • Western US governors collaborate on EV corridor
    December 22, 2016
    The Governors of Colorado, Utah and Nevada are to work together over the next year to develop complementary plans for building an electric vehicle charging network across key highway corridors in their states. The corridors will include Interstates 70, 76 and 25 across Colorado; Interstates 70, 80 and 15 across Utah; and Interstates 80 and 15 across Nevada. In total, the charging network will connect more than 2,000 miles of highway. This regional electric charging station network aims to address rang