The tale of the elusive infrastructure deal, and how we got it done for Colorado
*Finally* finishing the Arkansas Valley Conduit. Improving I-70 at Floyd Hill. Bringing broadband to every Coloradan.
Last month, we celebrated three years of our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest public investment in infrastructure in a century.
We could just spout off the numbers: $1.2 trillion nationwide investment, with over $7.2 billion already delivered to Colorado for over 1,000 projects across the state1 – but that doesn’t quite paint the picture of the real impact these infrastructure improvements are having on Colorado communities.
But first, let’s take a look at how we got this across the finish line.
For decades, presidents and politicians promised to modernize and reinvigorate America’s infrastructure.
Spoiler alert: they didn’t.
It took a Democrat-led Congress working together with reasonable Republicans to get the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in 2021.
I was lucky enough to be part of the group of senators who, over the course of several months, would negotiate and write what would become the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
And we did it with three things in mind: Colorado, Colorado, and Colorado.
As a former Governor knows, states know what they most need. Why should bureaucrats universally apply something that works in California to Colorado? It’s why we let each individual state play the primary role in allocating funding and creating priorities.
The results?
Well, if you’ve ever tried to use I-70 to cross our state, you’ve probably spent hours sitting in traffic wondering if there’s a better way. We broke ground on an improvement project on I-70 from Floyd Hill to the Veterans Memorial Tunnels to add an extra lane to reduce congestion and increase roadway safety. This is the largest transportation project in Colorado since work began on the expansion of I-70 in Denver, and it’s all thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.2
Or look at our airports. They’re gateways to our state, and an important link for our rural communities. There’s infrastructure funding for that, too! From modernizing Denver International Airport to meet the needs of the 3rd busiest airport in the country3, to building a new terminal at Durango-La Plata County Airport4, we’re delivering improvements to make air travel safe and accessible for all Coloradans.
It’s not just traditional infrastructure like roads, rail and air, or electric vehicle charging that has been improved.
It’s capping orphan oil and gas wells, so methane emissions don’t keep leaking into our atmosphere5 (something Colorado knows a bit about since we set the gold standard in regulating methane emissions in 2016).
It’s replacing lead pipes, so our families and kids can have access to safe drinking water.6
And it’s bringing high-speed internet to every. Single. American. We specifically wrote that part of the bill because we knew how important broadband access and affordability are so all Coloradans are connected.7
It’s even fulfilling promises made to Colorado over sixty years ago. President John F. Kennedy visited Pueblo in 1962 to announce the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. Completion had stalled for decades due to deficient funding bills and government bureaucracy.
$250 million from our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law helped us finally begin the FINAL phase of the project.8 Once completed, it will deliver clean drinking water from the Pueblo Reservoir to almost 40 rural communities and 50,000 Coloradans throughout Southeast Colorado. We won’t let our foot off the gas to finish it as soon as possible.
While bringing American infrastructure into the 21st century was a big priority for this legislation, we made sure reducing costs for Americans and improving quality of life was top of mind.
Smoother and less congested roads mean your car is more efficient and you’re taking fewer trips to the gas station. Millions of families can access affordable high-speed internet. Electric school buses allow our elementary schools the flexibility to put more money towards teachers. Increased frequency of public transit in your city means you have more transportation options to get to work or church.
We could go on forever if we wanted to run through all the infrastructure projects around the state that we’ve announced, completed, or broken ground on.
It’s only been three years – and we’re not done yet. Cheers to the progress we’ve made, and cheers to America’s Infrastructure Decade.
For a fact sheet on investments in Colorado from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, click HERE. For a full list of projects and an interactive map, click HERE.
