Driving You Crazy: What is the crazy contraption that was set up on the ramp from Broadway to Highway 36?

WESTMINSTER, Colo. — Fred from Westminster writes, “What's driving you crazy? The westbound on ramp from Broadway to US 36, a crazy camera system has shown up with no signage of what is going on. It doesn't look like the normal emissions collection. What are they collecting data for now?”

Don’t go out looking for this thing as it has already moved on. You can see from the picture I attached to this story what the contraption Fred wrote to me about looks like. I had never seen anything like it before. I searched all around the base of it which was set on a mobile trailer. I looked at the camera placed on the ground in front of the trailer that was pointed at oncoming traffic. It wasn’t until I looked at the pole that held another camera and large box with a fan inside right over the roadway that I finally saw something that gave me a clue. It was a little green sign saying emissions testing.

I knew then to reach out to Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and they told me their Air Pollution Control Division placed that emissions data collection equipment on that ramp as part of their work to implement a four-year-old state law. Senate Bill 21-260 called The Sustainability of the Transportation System Act requires the CDPHE to identify medium and heavy-duty vehicles that are high emitters of pollutants and ones that are potential candidates for electrification.

“This equipment takes a top-down reading of the vehicle's exhaust plume, so we can also capture heavy-duty vehicles where the exhaust is routed above the cab,” Leah Schleifer, Communications and Outreach Specialist for CDPHE, said.

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This contraption is much different from the traditional roadside emissions testing equipment you might have seen on a highway on ramp. That system, in use since 1995, is called RapidScreen and is Air Care Colorado's mobile emissions testing program. Drivers typically see a van parked on the shoulder of a highway ramp surrounded by orange traffic cones. Drivers just have to roll past the testing location and the specialized equipment screens the exhaust and records the license plate. If the screened vehicle passes the test, the vehicle owner is notified during registration that they don’t have to get a test at one of the metro area AirCare Colorado facilities where wait times can be well over 30 minutes.

This temporary truck emissions testing apparatus is not used often. It was set up just twice in metro Denver last year, both times in July. CDPHE tells me this August was the first time this year they have used this large emissions testing equipment. “We selected locations based on where we typically see a large volume of medium and heavy-duty vehicles, while giving priority to communities that are disproportionately impacted by air pollution,” Schleifer said.

The ramp from Broadway to westbound US 36 was the final location where CDPHE collected data. The equipment was removed on August 15. The other two locations where emissions data was collected this month were in Denver on the on ramp from Interstate 25 to westbound Interstate70 and down in Colorado Springs on the ramp from Cimarron Street to I-25.

I’m told now that all the data has been collected. The CDPHE will evaluate it and provide information to those vehicle owners on how to participate in the Clean Fleet Vehicle and Technology Grant Program if they are interested.

“The primary focus is to notify owners of medium and heavy duty vehicles that have disproportionately high emissions,” Schleifer said. “We are not using this data collection to determine pass or fail results for the vehicle emissions inspection program; rather, it is to help identify the most-polluting medium and heavy duty vehicles that may be interested in grant funding for fleet electrification”.

The agency told me this emissions data is solely for the purpose of their grant program, and the air division will not share it with any other agencies. CDPHE said this grant program is voluntary and they intend to re-open the program for applications this fall.

If you were hoping to see another testing location, I’m sorry to say, you are out of luck. I’m told the testing equipment isn’t expected to be used again this year.

Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.