{"id":21280,"date":"2025-07-24T22:11:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T22:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-state-rep-taking-over-cdot-district-8-regional-commissioner-role\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:04:43","slug":"former-state-rep-taking-over-cdot-district-8-regional-commissioner-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-state-rep-taking-over-cdot-district-8-regional-commissioner-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Former state rep taking over CDOT District 8 regional commissioner role"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"McLachlan\"
McLachlan<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Former state Rep. Barbara McLachlan has been sworn in as a Colorado Department of Transportation regional commissioner for Southwest Colorado and the San Luis Valley.<\/p>\n

McLachlan will help advocate for the transportation needs in CDOT\u2019s District 8, which includes Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezuma, Rio Grande, Saguache, San Juan and San Miguel counties.<\/p>\n

The four-year term is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. CDOT has 10 other regional commissioners that represent different parts of the state.<\/p>\n

McLachlan, who served eight years as state House District 59 representative, said her past experience as vice chair on the state transportation committee has prepared her well for the role of CDOT regional commissioner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty familiar with the people involved and the issues involved around the state,\u201d she said. \u201cI represented most of the counties in the Southwest during my eight years, and I visited most of the counties in the San Luis Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLachlan said she\u2019s been in contact with Sens. Cleve Simpson and Matt Martinez to facilitate the best teamwork possible on issues of transportation in the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to spend time with a lot of people, and hear what their issues are,\u201d she said. \u201cI think rural Colorado has very different issues than urban Colorado, but they\u2019re just as important. We need to make sure we listen, and that I advocate.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLachlan said facilitating projects related to alternative transportation modes, rather than only focusing on road work for vehicles, will be a priority during her term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a new statewide bus service \u2013 Bustang. And then there\u2019s Outrider and Pegasus that go around. And if you look at the map, if anybody wants to go to Denver, they have to go to Grand Junction first, and then Denver,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a two-day trip to get to Denver on a bus from Durango. That\u2019s something I\u2019d really like to look at. I think it\u2019s a rural issue right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLachlan also cited CDOT\u2019s \u201c10 year plan,\u201d which involves investigating resilience of transportation methods, addressing safety concerns, and using the Multimodal Transportation and Mitigation Options Fund and Fix It First. The MMOF works to make multiple forms of transportation readily accessible to communities, and Fix It First involves using and repurposing existing resources, rather than seeking new ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need to be putting our money into more lanes,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can put them into the buses and things, and help alleviate some of the pollution and the traffic and the clogging.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLachlan also wants to focus on road improvement projects. Upgrades to traffic patterns along U.S. Highway 160 between Durango and Bayfield is on CDOT\u2019s radar, she said, and conversations have been in progress with Simpson in relation to work on Pagosa Springs roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe traffic there is a mess, so I\u2019m listening to him,\u201d McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

The biggest roadblock that CDOT faces, is a lack of funding on the state and federal levels, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had to readjust our budget, and next year is going to be hard as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sidny Zink, who held the role from 2013 to 2021, advised McLachlan to notice of the rest of the state, outside of one\u2019s elected district.<\/p>\n

\u201cAppreciate that you speak for your district, but it\u2019s important that you appreciate what\u2019s going on around the state (too),\u201d she said. \u201cThat was something really important for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLachlan has met with Zink and former transportation commissioner Steve Parker, and she plans to meet with outgoing commissioner Mark Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of those opportunities to do what\u2019s best for both urban and rural Colorado, and see what we can do to get around easier, to make it safe, to make it economic, environmental and preserve what we have here,\u201d McLachlan said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of where we\u2019re aiming with all of this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited to have this job,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019m really honored that they asked me, and I\u2019m looking forward to the hard work ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

epond@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hopeful new projects on the horizon include multimodal transportation, Bustang routes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2176,576,28,259,69],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-barbara-mclachlan","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-headlines","tag-transportation","tag-u-s-highway-160"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77242,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21280\/revisions\/77242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21280"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}