The Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Oct. 1 denied a joint motion by BNSF Railway and the Colorado Department of Transportation to amend an earlier application to replace railroad-crossing equipment at Niwot Road, and in a separate filing granted CDOT an extension to respond to a deficiency letter in a Jay Road crossing application.

Staff told commissioners the joint amendment for Niwot Road would expand the original filing’s scope and create notice issues, and recommended denying the unopposed motion. "Staff recommends the commission deny the unopposed joint motion for leave to file amended application," said Mr. Farrell, a rail transit safety section staffer, when presenting the matter. Commissioners Eric Blank, Commissioner Gilman, and Commissioner Platt agreed.

Why it matters: The Niwot Road matter (proceeding 24ADash0567R) was originally decided complete and granted by Decision No. C25Dash0112; the proposed amendment sought to add CDOT as a joint applicant and to change the advanced preemption timing of a CDOT traffic signal interconnected with the railroad crossing signals. Staff said the proposed changes were outside the scope of the granted application and that CDOT had not intervened in the original matter, so the amendment should be filed as a separate new application.

In a separate proceeding (25ADash03584) involving a Jay Road crossing, staff reported CDOT had received a deficiency letter and requested additional time to prepare a response because its engineers were still working on the missing materials and counsel had an overlapping trial. "CDOT requests a 28 day extension of time up to and including Monday, 10/13/2025, to complete and file its response to [the] deficiency letter," Farrell said. Staff recommended the commission deem the application incomplete and grant the extension; the commissioners approved that recommendation.

Details and next steps: For Niwot Road, the commission concluded the advanced-preemption and traffic-signal controller changes raised new notice and party-participation issues and instructed the applicants to file a new application if they wish to pursue those changes. For Jay Road, the filing will remain incomplete while CDOT prepares the requested supplemental information; no interventions had been filed in that matter as of the Oct. 1 meeting.

The votes were taken on the record during the commission’s Oct. 1 weekly meeting; commissioners indicated assent with brief on-the-record confirmations, and staff will issue written decisions formalizing the denials and extension.