Ed has deep roots in the 7th Congressional District and has lived in Jefferson County his entire life. His grandfather and father ran a concrete business (in what is now the 7th District) for decades. Ed attended Jefferson County public schools and then worked construction with his father during the summers while in law school at the University of Colorado. He chose to raise his family in the district where his three daughters also attended Jefferson County Public Schools. Ed currently lives in Arvada with his wife Nancy, a public school teacher, who also has three children who attended Jeffco public schools.
Transportation funding for roads, bridges and transit largely come from federal sources. This has included funding for projects important to the 7th Congressional District such as the US-36 Express Lanes Project, the I-25 Managed Lanes Project, and RTD FasTracks’ expansion. As a part of these and other projects, Ed supports including better options for pedestrians and bicyclists. These are important to creating an integrated transportation system with multimodal transportation options for Front Range residents.
In 2015, Congress passed and Ed supported the bipartisan Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. This bill reauthorized our surface transportation programs for five years and provided guaranteed funding for highway, transit, and transportation safety programs including more than $3.4 billion in direct highway and transit formula funds for Colorado. It also provides certainty for CDOT, RTD, and local communities to help create jobs, repair our aging infrastructure, improve public transit, and strengthen our economy. Ed continues to support efforts to ensure the Highway Trust Fund becomes solvent to help guarantee these needed transportation investments in our communities.
It is clear additional investment in repairing our outdated infrastructure is necessary. Ed supports efforts to fund new transportation, transit, water, and other infrastructure projects so communities in Colorado can reduce congestion and improve quality of life.
Train Horn Noise
Railroads once helped transform Denver into a bustling American city. Today, railroads are still an important mode of transportation for freight and goods in addition to passenger transportation. Unfortunately for those who live near a railroad, trains sound their horns loudly as they travel through railway crossings. Ed has worked with communities impacted by train horn noise to try to mitigate the impact of the noise through activation of quiet zones. Yet these quiet zones often require significant safety upgrades to railway crossings and have become cost-prohibitive. As a part of the FAST Act, Ed authored an amendment requiring the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of train horn noise. Through increased pressure from Colorado’s congressional delegation, the Federal Railroad Administration is now working to modernize their rules and account for innovative technologies to ease the burden on local communities.