Improvements and upgrades to Colorado’s highway rest areas may be increased with funding from business sponsorships.
Like most other states, Colorado has seen many of its rest areas, some dating to the 1960s, fall into disrepair for a lack of funding.
The problems range from basic maintenance backlogs, to waste water system deficiencies and overused bathroom and visitors’ facilities that haven’t seen extensive upgrades in years.
Now officials with the Colorado Department of Transportation are reviewing the possibilities of letting various companies take on some of the rest area funding in return for being allowed to post placards in those areas as a form of advertising.
The placards would most likely be developed along public service themes, advertising, for example, certain area tourist attractions.
Members of the Colorado Transportation Commission may soon ask the state government to be allowed to green light what are called “rest-stop revenue generators.”
Last year the Federal Highway Administration released a guidance allowing for the creation of such sponsorships. Just over 20 states have since launched their own rest area sponsorship programs.
The FHA regulations allow for advertising in the rest area’s information centers, but not in parking areas, defined dog parks, or picnic areas. And such signs, which must be of a certain size, also cannot be posted to be legible from the highway itself.
While both federal and state laws have greatly restricted any form of advertising at highway rest areas, businesses, beginning in the 1970s, have been allowed to display their logos on the standard blue signs near a rest area.
There are currently nearly 30 rest areas operated by the Colorado Department of Transportation in various parts of the state.
By Garry Boulard
