The Denver Gazette ran a piece by Marissa Ventrelli on Feb. 17, 2026, about the Colorado Senate doing something borderline miraculous: passing a resolution that tells CDOT to spend more money fixing roads in Morgan County. The resolution was drafted by the Morgan County Board of Commissioners and carried by Sen. Byron Pelton of Sterling.
According to the resolution, about 70% of Morgan County roads have been labeled by CDOT as having “low drivability life,” and the story also cites a Reason Foundation report that ranked Colorado 47th in the nation for rural road conditions. In other words, the Eastern Plains are not asking for marble medians and fairy lights. They are asking for pavement that does not fight back.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Morgan County commissioners drafted a resolution urging CDOT to invest more in road repairs, and Sen. Byron Pelton carried it in the Senate.
- The resolution says roughly 70% of Morgan County roads are rated “low drivability life” by CDOT. That is a polite way to say, “Bring a spare tire and a prayer.”
- The Senate Transportation and Energy Committee passed it 6-3, and Pelton admitted even he was surprised. Three Democrats joined Republicans: Tony Exum, Kyle Mullica, and Tom Sullivan.
- Sen. Jeff Bridges said he would not vote for the resolution, but still agreed the state should invest more in Morgan County roads, and added the quiet part out loud: “we don’t have the funds in the budget.”
- The full Senate passed it 18-12, with all Republicans and six Democrats voting yes, and it heads to CDOT Director Shoshana Lew and Gov. Jared Polis.
My Bottom Line
My dear friend, Sen. Byron Pelton, called me on the way home from a busy day under the Gold Dome and said, “Don’t yell at me, but I passed a resolution in the Senate today urging CDOT to invest more money fixing roads.”
I said, “Why the hell would I yell at you for that?!”
He said, “Because it’s for Morgan County.”
Listen, the good senator knows how hard I fight for funding on Weld County roads. As Chair of the I-25 Coalition and a member of the Highway 34 Coalition, I fight every day to get CDOT to invest in, you know, roads. Actual roads. Not a green transit hobby horse or the next “mobility visioning session” that produces a binder and exactly zero asphalt.
But no, Byron, I am not mad. Not even close. Getting a bipartisan resolution out of a Democrat-controlled Senate is basically catching Bigfoot on a Ring camera. Even Democrats are waking up to realize our roads are beat up, and CDOT headquarters needs regular reminders that taxpayer dollars are supposed to touch pavement at some point.
Morgan County deserves some CDOT love. So does Weld. So does the rest of the state. Someone needs to continually remind the governor and his administration that life exists outside the Denver and Boulder bubble. And if CDOT wants to start proving it by fixing rural roads first, I will happily clap. Then I will ask what took so damn long.
Source: The Denver Gazette
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