Interstate Reflection

The following are memories and reflections regarding Colorado's interstate system.

To see mpeg movie clips from some of the state's highway/transportation employees click on the picture below.

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While I was in college at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins , I was on the CSU wrestling team as well as in the engineering school. We usually traveled to our wrestling meets in the Denver and Boulder areas in low-slung stretch “buses” that were really more like stretch limousine type cars, with our gear stowed on the top. The coach decided I was one of the designated drivers, maybe because I was married and therefore he thought I would be reliable. I recall driving from Denver to Ft. Collins in that stretch bus, using frontage roads and various ramps, wondering if we were going to scrape bottom, while Interstate 25 was under construction. I remember thinking, “Why is it taking them so long to get this done?”

Tom Norton
Former CDOT Executive Director

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"When I was a young graduate student in geology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, I spent two summers in Montana studying volcanic rock in the high Absarokas.  As I concluded my field work that second summer, I had a few days to drive cross-country and catch a discount charter flight from New York's JFK airport to my sister's wedding in Oxford, England.  Unfortunately, my car broke down - delaying our departure by nearly two days.  Once the car was fixed, my field assistant and I drove more than 35 hours straight - day and night - to get to the airport 30 minutes before departure.  This would have been too late to clear Customs, except the flight was fortunately delayed 12 hours.  But without the United States interstate system, I would have had no hope of ever making that flight."

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper

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My parents attended the University of Denver on the G.I. bill afterward World War II. We lived in a community of metal Quonset huts called Bechtel Village near the intersection of Evans and Colorado Blvd. This was the start of the Baby Boom and there were lots of kids my age starting kindergarten at nearby Corey Elementary. Between our village and the school was this wonderful construction site with lots of piles of dirt and parked machinery. And while we were forbidden to go there, eventually a few of us brave ones did slip off and go play in the big piles of dirt at the site. And got in BIG trouble when we got caught. We know that site today as Interstate 25. And every time I got stuck in traffic during T-Rex I’d always think, “Ha! I’ve seen that dirt before!”

Gary Thomas
Executive Director
SAINT volunteer transportation
Fort Collins