HB 17-1153

House Bill 17-1153, also known as the Highway Congestion Mitigation bill, aims to ease traffic congestion on Interstate 25 between Castle Rock and Monument by prioritizing projects that expand highway capacity. The bill clarifies rules for carpool lanes (HOV) and toll lanes (HOT), allowing vehicles with two or more people to use HOV lanes without paying a toll, while solo drivers must pay to use HOT lanes. It also mandates the Colorado Department of Transportation to expedite funding and environmental studies for these expansion projects within six months of the bill's signing. Since it has been signed into law, these changes are now in effect and will impact how traffic management operates on this stretch of highway.

Official Summary

The bill clarifies that high occupancy vehicle lanes are lanes on which a vehicle carrying 2 or more individuals, including the driver, may travel and that high occupancy toll lanes are lanes on which a vehicle carrying fewer than 2 individuals, including the driver, must pay a toll. The bill also raises the priority of currently unfunded projects to expand the capacity of interstate highway 25 between the town of Castle Rock and the town of Monument and between state highway 14 and state highway 66 (high priority projects) by: Requiring the department of transportation (CDOT) to put the high priority projects above all other unfunded projects on its priority list for project funding; Requiring all federal money received by CDOT that the federal government does not require to be allocated for other projects and that CDOT has not previously allocated for other projects to be used to fund the high priority projects before being used to fund other projects; and Requiring any environmental studies or other studies required to be completed before the high priority projects may begin to be completed no later than 6 months following the effective date of the bill and prohibiting study findings from being used to prevent the high priority projects from being undertaken.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

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