BERTHOUD, CO — Berthoud Mayor Will Karspeck summed up the impact on his community from just some of the nearly $33 million northeastern Colorado recently received in federal stimulus money.

“Our view of the Front Range just got more convenient, comfortable, and more sustainable,” Karspeck wrote in a recent column, regarding the $6.5 million received to complete the new transportation mobility hub on I-25 at CO 56, the Berthoud exit.

Karspeck complimented the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the North Front Range MPO team among others for moving quickly over the holidays to provide the list of projects which included the hub.

Heather Paddock, Regional Transportation Director for CDOT in Northeast Colorado, agreed with that assessment. “CDOT was one of the first organizations in the nation who responded quickly over the holidays to provide a list of shovel-ready projects for approval by the Transportation Commission in early January.”

The transportation mobility hub at CO 56 is similar to the one being built to the north of US 34 in Loveland. A new Park N Ride is being built north of the interchange. A walkway will lead to a tunnel under I-25 that leads to an incline that leads to the new Bustang stop in the middle of I-25. The center-load station will allow buses to exit left out of the new Express Lanes to pick up and drop off riders before continuing in the Express Lane. This will save travel time and is safer by avoiding crossing traffic in the free lanes. This Berthoud mobility hub is one in over a dozen planned and identified in the 10-year plan for the I-25 corridor between Fort Collins in Pueblo.

Karspeck said the Berthoud Area Transportation System is going through a re-envisioning process that will include connections to the hub from town.

“Linking our expansion of I-25 with local, regional, and statewide mass transit is the perfect partnership and one that truly hits the heart of stimulating the economy in the short-term with jobs and in the long-term with a connection that opens all of our communities to the entire Front Range,” Paddock said.

Coming up with the list of projects for the stimulus funds was made a little easier because CDOT has a recently approved 10-year plan of projects, many of which had already been through an extensive design process and were only awaiting funding.

The federal stimulus money was intended to infuse local economies with work that is beneficial to the community. Paddock said it was that goal and a focus on spreading economic recovery projects throughout the region that lead to the approved list.

The project list includes rural paving, interstate paving, an adaptive traffic signal system to ease congestion and provide transit priority at intersections on CO 119, safety, accessibility, and multimodal projects as well as several essential repair projects for a few aging and historic timber bridges in the region.