Tolling starts this week on I-70 express lanes in northeast Denver [PAYWALL - ARTICLE IN COMMENTS]

ARTICLE TEXT

The extended grace period is over for Interstate 70’s express lanes on a 10-mile stretch through northeast Denver and Aurora. Starting Tuesday, drivers will have to pay tolls to use them if they want to bypass traffic.

Just how much will vary by time of day, ranging from $1.50 at night to $4.50 between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., the morning period when traffic is typically heaviest in both directions. Those are the rates for drivers with ExpressToll transponders — those without them will pay significantly more, ranging from $4.26 to $10.08, with tolls billed via license plate scans.

The express lanes will be free to access for motorcycles, transit providers and vehicles carrying at least three passengers (as long as the driver uses a switchable HOV transponder).

Large trucks are allowed to use the express lanes, too, but any vehicle with four axles or more will be charged an extra $25, in addition to the toll.

The express lanes were added as a key component of the $1.3 billion Central 70 expansion project, which wrapped up this year between Interstate 25 and Chambers Road.

A free testing period began late last year for the toll lanes, and tolling was supposed to begin at the end of February. But the Colorado Department of Transportation delayed the start, citing problems experienced by the tolling contractor and back-office systems.

Among the Central 70 project’s mitigations is a $1 million tolling equity program that will provide ExpressToll transponders and initial $100 toll credits to residents of Denver’s Elyria-Swansea and Globeville neighborhoods who meet income qualifications.

Once tolling begins, a flat rate will be charged to access the express lanes along the entire corridor.

CDOT will pocket the revenue, but it likely will be tapped to help make annual payments to Kiewit-Meridiam Partners, which built the Central 70 project and will maintain the highway for three decades under a $2.2 billion partnership deal.

After the morning rush hour, the ExpressToll rate will vary between $2.50 and $3.25 during the day before dropping to $1.50 at 7 p.m. under the initial rate schedule approved earlier this year by the Colorado Transportation Investment Office, a CDOT business arm that oversees the state’s growing express lane network.

CDOT says drivers should enter and exit the express lanes in designated sections along the corridor and shouldn’t cross the double-white lines that separate the lanes in most places from I-70’s general traffic lanes.

The state recently launched an enforcement system on the I-70 mountain express lanes near Idaho Springs that uses cameras and sensors to ticket drivers for express-lane violations, and it plans to expand the system to other corridors by late 2024.