Dear Public Meeting Participants:

I would like to thank those of you who attended and participated in the public meetings held on December 12 and 17, 2002. As you recall these meetings presented numerous design alternatives for the I-25 Valley Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). I appreciate receiving your written and verbal comments on the numerous interstate and interchange design alternatives we presented at the meetings. Attached is our responses to your comments.

We have taken your comments from this meeting and incorporated them into the design alternative process. During this selection process, we developed a large number of potential design alternatives for the I-25 Mainline and the major interchanges. A selection methodology has been developed that screens and eliminates a large number of design alternatives. This screening methodology incorporates several factors such as environmental impacts, safety, constructability and community impacts. This screening methodology will allow us to reduce the large number of alternatives down to a more manageable number for more intensive engineering and environmental analysis.

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will continue to keep the public informed about the progress of the I-25 Valley Highway Project. It is estimated that the next public meeting will be during the month of July, 2003 where the top design alternatives will be presented and discussed in an open forum. We will also be developing a newsletter that will keep you up to date on the alternative screening process and the most promising designs. Please visit our web page at www.valleyhighway.com for updated project information.

Finally, I am enthusiastic about the number of people who have volunteered to participate in the Public Working Groups. CDOT will be coordinating Public Working Groups for the following issues 1) Noise, 2) South Platte River Corridor, 3) Construction Impacts, 4) Urban Design/Aesthetics and 5) Pedestrian/Bicycle Mobility.

We have already initiated the Noise Public Working Group by having a Noise Demonstration Workshop on January 16 and 21, 2003. We will be coordinating other Public Working Group meetings in the near future.

Please contact the I-25 Valley Highway Hotline at 720-489-7923 if you have any questions, would like to volunteer to join a Public Working Group, or would like a Spanish translation of CDOT’s Response to the Public Comments.

Thanks again for your continued participation.

Tony Gross
Valley Highway Project Manager
Colorado Department of Transportation, Region 6