{"id":41993,"date":"2022-02-25T12:48:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T19:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/transportation-secretary-pete-buttigieg-touts-biden-infrastructure-plan-in-colorado-visit\/"},"modified":"2022-02-25T19:48:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T19:48:06","slug":"transportation-secretary-pete-buttigieg-touts-biden-infrastructure-plan-in-colorado-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/transportation-secretary-pete-buttigieg-touts-biden-infrastructure-plan-in-colorado-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg touts Biden infrastructure plan in Colorado visit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks at a news conference Thursday beneath Interstate 70 in Clear Creek County. (Chase Woodruff\/Colorado Newsline)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday visited one of the most notorious portions of Colorado\u2019s Interstate 70 corridor to tout the impact of the $550 billion package of new infrastructure spending<\/a> signed into law by President Joe Biden last year.<\/p>\n

Top Colorado Democrats including Gov. Jared Polis, Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Rep. Joe Neguse joined Buttigieg beneath I-70 at Floyd Hill in Clear Creek County, where the Colorado Department of Transportation is undertaking a $700 million<\/a> project that aims to improve traffic flow and safety along what has historically been a congested and hazardous stretch of the highway just east of Idaho Springs.<\/p>\n

\"Bennet\"
Bennet<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cFloyd Hill is an incredible pain point on I-70, both for Coloradans that are trying to get to and from the mountains, but also for everybody who\u2019s coming across the United States of America,\u201d Bennet said.<\/p>\n

Buttigieg thanked Colorado\u2019s Democratic members of Congress for their efforts in passing last year\u2019s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is expected to provide more than $5 billion in funding<\/a> for highways, bridges, public transit and other infrastructure projects in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an exaggeration to say that their support for this historic, landmark legislation will directly lead to improvements in the daily commutes, the everyday life, the job opportunities and the bank accounts of every Coloradan,\u201d Buttigieg said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s part of why we\u2019re here to point out exactly what President Biden\u2019s vision for building a better America looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polis noted CDOT was able to speed up the timeline for the Floyd Hill project thanks to the combination of the congressional infrastructure bill and a state-level funding package<\/a>, Senate Bill 21-260, passed by lawmakers in the Colorado General Assembly last year.<\/p>\n

\"Polis\"
Polis<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cEarly on, this was part of the 10-year plan,\u201d Polis said. \u201cNow, thanks to the resources of (SB-)260 and the federal infrastructure bill, this project begins in the next few weeks and will be completed within five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Colorado Democrats have sought to tout the climate benefits of the infrastructure bill, including resiliency investments and funding for electric vehicle charging stations, many environmental activists remained concerned over the potential for increased greenhouse gas emissions caused by highway expansions nationwide.<\/p>\n

Buttigieg said that the Department of Transportation will seek to work with state officials to consider \u201cquality as well as quantity in transportation decisions.\u201d His visit is scheduled to continue Friday with a tour of the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, one of the country\u2019s largest rural public transit systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some places where it is rational to add capacity,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there are also places that maybe have had that \u2018all you have is a hammer\u2019 attitude, and haven\u2019t been as thoughtful about creating alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

With additional federal help on the way, CDOT officials are finalizing a new transportation-planning rule<\/a> that aims to better align state and regional infrastructure projects with its targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts. A policy memo<\/a> issued by the Federal Highway Administration in December also outlined ways for state-level transportation officials to pursue similar efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always going to have roads and we\u2019re always going to have cars, but it\u2019s no longer the be-all, end-all of transportation policy,\u201d Buttigieg added. \u201cAnd I think decision-makers in Colorado have reflected that insight in their choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Democrats met beneath I-70, where CDOT is undertaking a $700 million project<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[819,481,28,259,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-headlines","tag-transportation","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41993","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=41993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41993"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}