EL PASO/DOUGLAS COUNTY LINE, Colo. (KRDO) — After a December grace period that resulted in approximately 10,000 violations, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) starts the new year with tighter enforcement of illegal and unsafe driving habits in the I-25 “Gap” between Monument and Castle Rock.
CDOT said that it is the first in the nation — and perhaps in the world — to install new technology that combines cameras, sensors and computer software, and was designed and tested for two years by a private contractor.
The agency wants to prevent crashes that are common when drivers in the two regular lanes are caught off-guard when express lane drivers unexpectedly and suddenly weave in and out of the pay lanes — as well as discourage drivers from using the lanes without paying the tolls.
“What the technology does is automatically detects vehicles as they’re moving over the express lane lines — so that we can detect them, record the license plates and then send fines out to those violators,” Tim Hoover, CDOT’s deputy communications director, explained.