By: Ellen Dannin
On July 24, 2008, the Denver Post reported that Coloradans were shocked to learn that the private contractor that had leased the Northwest Parkway objected to road improvements on W. 160th Avenue, “because they might hurt the parkway financially.”
Colorado State Representative Frank McNulty declared: “The purpose of toll roads is to augment state transportation infrastructure, not act as a roadblock to the construction of new transportation infrastructure in the northwest metro area.”
McNulty’s objection came a year too late. Had he read the Northwest Parkway privatization contract he would have known that for 99 years the contractor had every right to object to new or improved roads and mass transit systems. He would also have known that building a “competing transportation facility” would entitle the private contractor to compensation for reduced toll revenues during the next 98 years.
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