Statewide Transportation Plans

Welcome to CDOT's web-based Statewide Transportation Plan. This plan is a vision document that outlines what our multimodal transportation options will look like in Colorado over the next 10 to 25 years. It is divided into four sections—plus an executive summary—each of which helps to illustrate where Colorado stands today, the challenges that we face, and how we will continue to make progress in the future.

The sections of the Statewide Transportation Plan are:

• The Colorado Transportation Story
  Why Colorado's transportation system matters and what challenges we will need to overcome to maintain and improve it for the future
• The Planning Process
  How CDOT worked with key stakeholders and you to develop the plan
• Key Data Findings, Needs and Revenue
  Which trends will influence our transportation future and how much funding will be needed to keep the system functioning
• Moving Forward
  What steps CDOT is taking to deliver on the promises of the Statewide Transportation Plan

The Statewide Transportation Plan is intended to be a living document that responds and evolves to the changing needs of our state, moving forward while giving Coloradans an ongoing voice in the process. In order for the plan to accurately reflect the priorities of our citizens, we need as much public input as possible. Please take some time to review the materials below and share your thoughts on the Contact Us page.

Feel free to skip directly to the sections of the plan that are most interesting to you or read it from top to bottom—whichever you prefer. This is your Statewide Transportation Plan; let us know what you think of it! Thank you for helping CDOT to develop the kind of transportation system that Coloradans expect and deserve.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary document provides a high-level overview of the Statewide Transportation Plan development process, goals, needs, revenues and funding gaps, as well as CDOT's investment strategies and strategic actions to make the plan a reality. Read the document to get the overall picture, or delve deeper with the four sections below.

Read the Executive Summary.

Statewide Plan Brochure

This brochure provides a high-level summary of key findings of the Colorado 2040 Statewide Transportation Plan Executive Summary.
Read the Statewide Plan Brochure.

The Colorado Transportation Story

Before we can plan for the future, we need to know where we stand today. Colorado's Transportation Story contains both significant progress and new challenges ahead.

CDOT has made great strides in delivering a safe and effective multimodal transportation system, but it will be increasingly difficult to maintain this system with limited funding in future. If the transportation system begins to break down, Colorado's mobility and economic vitality will also decline. That's what makes this plan so important for our future.

Watch the video below to see CDOT's vision of why transportation matters to Colorado and how we can keep you moving in the decades ahead.

The Planning Process

The Statewide Transportation Plan is CDOT's guide to the decades ahead, but we don't create it; you do. The planning process is one way of making sure that all Coloradans have a voice in deciding the vision, goals, and priorities for our statewide transportation system.

Check out the interactive presentation below to learn more about why the plan is developed, who is involved in the planning process, the regional priorities and statewide needs that came out of it, and how we will translate the plan's vision for Colorado's future transportation system into a reality.

Key Data Findings, Needs, and Revenue

The planning process is designed ensure that CDOT considers all the information available when planning for Colorado's future multimodal transportation system. When we analyze all of this data together, it tells a story—one about Coloradans' ability to get around quickly and safely, about our state's continuing economic vitality, and about how we can keep the transportation system functioning for the next 10 to 25 years.

Most of all, it tells a story about our needs: what investments Colorado should make today to ensure that the transportation system is ready for tomorrow. Annual funding for transportation can no longer keep pace with the costs of operating, maintaining, and improving the statewide transportation system, so it is more important than ever to use data-driven investment strategies that maximize what we get.

Explore the interactive presentations below to learn more about what the data is telling us, what it means for the shape of our future transportation system, and what resources will be necessary to make it a reality.

As shown by the data above, Colorado's future transportation needs are significant, and it will be a challenge to meet them at current funding levels. Without additional revenue sources, CDOT will only be able to maintain the existing transportation system for another 10 years. Beyond that point, the functionality and condition of our transportation system will begin to decline.

Moving Forward

It doesn't matter how good a plan is if you don't follow through. When the planning process ends, the real work begins: translating your vision and priorities into real, lasting improvements in our transportation system. To do so, CDOT will need to get innovative for the future, just like we always have in the past.

Watch the Innovation Through the Ages video below to see some highlights of CDOT's innovation during our more than 100-year history.

CDOT has a proven track record of innovating and adapting to change over the course of the past century, and we're not going to stop now. Our mission is to connect the people of Colorado to one another and the rest of the world with a multimodal transportation system that moves people, goods, and information safely and effectively.

Coloradans told us that in the future, our state will need a well-functioning system that provides greater mobility choice and invests limited funds wisely. We agree, and we've got a plan to get there.

CDOT Action Plan

The ongoing success of Colorado's transportation system depends on more than just funding and infrastructure; CDOT also needs to look at itself as an organization to make sure that we're able to deliver on the promises of the Statewide Transportation Plan and keep our state moving forward in the decades to come.

CDOT's Action Plan articulates the progress made during the last four years in modernizing business practices and making improvements in the goal areas listed below:

The document lays out specific next steps that will build upon the achievements already made in the goal areas, and how CDOT will continue to use innovation and improved management to deliver more construction and maintenance to benefit our customers. Senior management worked together to identify the specific priority actions that will deliver more tangible results in the next few years.

Implementors have been identified and will be responsible for executing and ensuring that these are accomplished. These priority actions will be reviewed annually to assess progress made. The CDOT Action Plan Status Report for 2015 was released in February 2016.

Top Strategic Actions

CDOT has identified a series of top strategic actions to focus on as limited funding allows. These strategic actions will assist in addressing the goals and objectives for the transportation system. They are focused on the next 10 years of the plan.

Some of the actions are quickly implementable and build on existing CDOT activities, while others will take longer to implement. To ensure the list of actions was multimodal and covered all the goal areas, CDOT incorporated actions from various plans for different modes of transportation and different topics (safety, operations, maintaining the system), as well as recent CDOT policies, and stakeholder and public input. The top strategic actions are organized by goal area and can be viewed  below:

CDOT has established a framework of 350 corridors across the state covering all interstate, U.S. and state highways. CDOT defines a corridor as a transportation system that includes all modes and facilities within a described geographic area, having length and width.

For this plan, the corridor framework has been used as part of the identification of transportation needs, development of priorities, and as a focus for public and agency input. The Statewide Plan includes two specific corridor designations:

1. Statewide corridors—These were determined by considering the National Highway Interstate System-designated routes, with designated freight and energy corridors. These are corridors with the highest importance at the statewide level.
   
   
   
2. Rural TPR Priority Investment Corridors—These were determined by each of the individual 10 TPRs. A Regional Priority Investment Corridor is a corridor that has been selected by the stakeholders of the TPR as having high importance to the region's transportation system, or it is important because of a need for near-term improvements. These corridors are the corridors designated by the TPRs as higher priorities for investment should funding for improvements be identified.
   

Colorado's Transportation System includes a variety of modes and all types of users. CDOT has developed a series of plans that support a multimodal transportation system, such as Statewide Transit Plan, Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, and Colorado Aviation System Plan.

CDOT has also created several plans that support the economic vitality of the state, including the Statewide Highway Freight Plan and Colorado State Freight and Passenger Rail Plan. Finally, CDOT has a set of plans aimed at getting the most out of the existing transportation system, such as the Risk-Based Asset Management Plan, Transportation System Management and Operations Plan, and Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

Each of these plans is a component of the statewide plan and has been integrated in terms of data, transportation needs, and strategic actions. Read more about Other CDOT Plans. 

Additionally, CDOT has deployed an interactive online mapping platform called C-Plan, which contains planning and programming maps, data and visualizations.