[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Debrief of our Transportation Infrastructure/Funding Visits in DC

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Jones, Suzanne

Dear All—

This past week, Kathleen Bracke (GO Boulder Manager in our Transportation Dept) and I represented the City of Boulder on a trip to Washington, DC, with a delegation of elected and staff from the US36 Mayors and Commissioners Coalition (MCC). In this whirlwind 48-hour visit, the coalition had meetings with our entire congressional delegation, the House & Senate transportation committees, and a handful of federal transportation agencies (Federal Transit Administration, Federal Highways Administration, Federal Railroads Administration, etc.) to thank them for their support of US 36 infrastructure, find out more about new grant programs under the FAST Act, and make the case for additional investments in the Northwest Corridor in the coming years. We distributed a great summary fact sheet that can be found at: http://36commutingsolutions.org/36cs/wp-content/uploads/Transportation_Fact_Sheet_2016.pdf

Based on the feedback we received in our meetings, not to mention the relationship-building with the representatives of RTD and CDOT who accompanied us, it was a very worthwhile trip. Some of the key takeaways from the trip include:

We were able to thank our congressional delegation for their work over many years providing federal funding and policy support for many years to complete the US-36 corridor's multimodal improvements. It was exciting to share news of completion and high performance of the new managed lanes, the Flatiron Flyer Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) extraordinary ridership increases (45% increase in ridership compared to last year!), and popularity of the new regional bikeway. And it was a great opportunity to invite our congressional delegation (and all of you reading this!) to the bikeway grand opening on June 18th.

Visiting each of the Senators and Representatives has paid off (literally and figuratively) for all of the communities along US36 corridor. Virtually everyone we met remarked on how impressive they found the collective presence of numerous MCC members plus reps from CDOT and RTD, and how it demonstrates our on-going commitment to collaboration (local, regional, state, and federal).  This collaborative approaches bodes well for advancing remaining elements of US36 BRT -- including the bi-directional managed lanes on I-25 to connect US36 with downtown Denver, as well as arterial BRT in the Northwest Area along priority roads SH-119, SH-7, and US-287.

Many of the congressional delegation and the federal agency staff complimented the MCC for successfully cobbling together extensive and diverse funding strategies to complete the US36 corridor multimodal improvements, and said MCC is the model approach for other corridors in the state and nationally to get things done. They encourage and support the MCC's work to continue this innovative approach to advance future projects such as BRT corridors. It is clear that continuing to pro-actively reach out to delegation and federal agency staff to build and sustain long-term relationships will be necessary to continue to find innovative funding opportunities and strategic partnerships to complete the major transportation capital initiatives planned for the Northwest region.

This year's visit was particularly helpful to learn more about new funding opportunities available through the new “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation” Act (FAST Act), which was signed into law last December—including new priorities and evaluation criteria for highway and transit projects. We also met with the Federal Railroad Administration to share feedback with them on their pending analysis of train horn noise and quiet zone requirements—an issue important to Northwest Corridor residents where so many of our cities are built along rail lines (we’ll send out more info about this public comment process in a later email).

In addition to transportation related concerns, Senator Bennett also inquired about policies being developed in our corridor communities to address affordable work force housing, as well as shared concerns he is hearing regarding heroin abuse and overdoes from Colorado healthcare providers.

Next steps include MCC staff following up with federal colleagues to explore details on Federal Transit Administration “Small Starts” funding opportunities for regional BRT corridors, federal highway funding for roadway improvements and innovative technology programs, and with Federal Railroad Administration to share formal comments on the federal train horn rule and quiet zone requirements.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me or Kathleen if you have any questions or comments. (And thanks to Kathleen for her excellent note-taking!)

Cheers,
Suzanne “Zan” Jones, Mayor

P.S. A handful of us local electeds also tacked on two extra meetings with the EPA and the Council on Environmental Quality to encourage the administration to keep moving forward expeditiously on their rulemaking efforts to address methane leaks associated with both existing and any future oil & gas development (which is modeled on Colorado’s methane rule)—and to thank them for their efforts to address climate change emissions in general.

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