About CTIO
CTIO's Mission
- Partner with CDOT, private industry, and local communities
- Aggressively pursue innovative financing alternatives not otherwise available to the state
- Quickly deliver transportation infrastructure options that improve mobility
- Communicate openly with all stakeholders
The Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery Act (Part 8 of Article 4, Title 43, Colorado Revised Statutes), otherwise known as FASTER, created the Colorado High Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE), now doing business as the Colorado Transportation Investment Office (CTIO), in 2009 as an independent, government-owned business within CDOT.
CTIO has the legal responsibility to aggressively seek out opportunities for innovative and efficient means of financing and delivering important surface transportation infrastructure projects in the state. It has the statutory power, among others, to impose tolls and other user fees, to issue bonds, and to enter into contracts with public and private entities to facilitate Public-Private Partnerships (P3s).
CTIO is an “enterprise” for purposes of Section 20 of Article X of the State Constitution as long as it retains the authority to issue revenue bonds and receives less than 10 percent of its total revenues in grants from the state and local governments. CTIO operates as a government-owned business within CDOT but is overseen by a separate Board of Directors that includes external stakeholders from four geographic regions appointed by the Governor.
Since the creation of the Enterprise, nine out of 10 CTIO projects have used some form of innovative financing. Such innovative means of financing projects include, but are not limited to:
- public-private partnerships;
- operating concession agreements;
- user fee-based project financing; and
- availability payment and design-build contracting.
Through Express Lanes, CTIO has helped deliver more than $3 billion in projects in the last five years. In fact, without Express Lanes as a financing tool, Colorado would have had to find an additional $1.27 billion in funds to deliver the projects it delivered as of 2018.
The Need
From 2016 to 2017, Colorado’s population grew by 1.4 percent, or about 75,000 new residents per year, according to the State Demographer’s Office. This number represents enough new residents to create a city the size of Loveland every year.
In 2017, Colorado’s growth rate was the eighth highest in the nation. This rapid population growth puts enormous pressure on the aging transportation infrastructure. Population growth, coupled with budget realities, significantly impacts the state’s ability to maintain and expand the transportation system. Finding solutions to these challenges is critical.
Colorado’s highway infrastructure is severely congested and, in many areas, it is more than 50 years old and in need of repairs and maintenance. The rapid growth of Colorado’s population points to even greater congestion in the decades ahead unless innovative ways to accelerate key projects are pursued.
As Colorado faces the realities of aging infrastructure, rapid population growth, and budgetary shortfalls, CTIO is a key means of exploring and developing innovative ways to address these challenges.
CTIO's Value
CTIO was formed to aggressively pursue innovative means of more efficiently financing important surface transportation infrastructure projects. Since the creation of the Enterprise, nine out of ten CTIO projects have used some form of innovative financing. Innovative financing enabled by CTIO, through Express Lanes, has helped deliver more than $3 billion in projects in the last five years.
CTIO has:
- Helped secure $130 million in federal grant dollars,
- Directly attracted $125 million in private investment, and
- Leveraged more than $1 billion of bond proceeds and other loans to contribute to projects in the state’s most congested regions.
Without the use of Express Lanes as a financing tool, the state of Colorado would have had to find an additional $1.27 billion in funds
to deliver these projects. Otherwise, the projects would have been significantly delayed, the scope would have been reduced substantially,
or money would have been reallocated from other projects around the state to fill the funding gaps. Without the use of Express Lanes as
a financing tool, CTIO and CDOT would not have been able to deliver nine projects in five years, totaling more than $3 billion in project value.
Instead, without tolled Express Lanes, CDOT would have been able to deliver one, or possibly two, of the projects, with a value well under
$1 billion. Legal Obligations
Aggressively seek out opportunities for innovative and efficient means of financing and delivering important surface transportation infrastructure projects in the state.
Impose tolls and other user fees, to issue bonds, and to enter into contracts with public and private entities to facilitate Public-Private Partnerships (P3s).
Act as an "enterprise" - for purposes of Section 20 of Article X of the State Constitution—as long as it retains the authority to issue revenue bonds, and receives less than 10 percent of its total revenues in grants from state and local governments.
Operate as a government-owned business within CDOT, but remain overseen by a separate board of directors that includes external stakeholders from four geographic regions appointed by Colorado's governor.
The CTIO Board of Directors consists of three members of the Transportation Commission (TC) and four members appointed by the Governor from each of the following geographic areas: (1) the planning area of the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), (2) the planning area of the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization (NFRMPO), (3) the planning area of the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, and (4) the I‑70 Mountain Corridor area.
The CTIO Board of Directors generally meets at 10:00 a.m. on the third Wednesday of every month at CDOT Headquarters (2829 W. Howard Place, Denver). These meetings are open to the public under the Colorado Open Meetings Law, and citizens are welcome to attend and participate. CTIO’s enabling statute requires that the Board meet at least eight times per year. In 2019, the CTIO Board of Directors met 10 times.
CTIO Board Meeting agendas, minutes, and documents are accessible on the CTIO Board section of the CTIO website.
|
Board Member |
Region |
Term Expiration |
|
Cecil Gutierrez, Vice-Chair |
NFRMPO Planning Area | October 2027 |
|
Eula Adams |
Transportation Commission | At Commission's will |
|
Karen Stuart, Chair |
Transportation Commission | At Commission's will |
|
Nissa Erickson |
I-70 Mountain Corridor | October 2027 |
|
Shelly Cook |
Transportation Commission | At Commission's will |
|
Nellie Moran |
DRCOG Planning Area | October 2027 |
|
Gina Sacripanti |
Pikes Peak Area COG Planning Area | October 2027 |
CDOT and CTIO MOU (2021)
CTIO Unsolicited Proposal Policy (2023)
Toll Rate Setting Policy (2023)
CTIO Budget Process and Reporting Guidelines (2016)
CTIO First Amended Transparency Policy (2015)
Open Records Policy Relating to P3 (2014)
CTIO Bylaws (2014)
Procurement Guidelines (2011)
CTIO Enabling Legislation (2009)
Articles of Organization (2009)
Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation & Economic Recovery (FASTER) Act (2009)
Since 2014, Express Lanes have led to the accelerated delivery of over $3 billion in freeway projects throughout Colorado. If not for the tolling component of Express Lanes, these projects would have been either significantly delayed, delivered with a significantly reduced scope, or advanced at the expense of other CDOT projects throughout Colorado.
