The federal government has rejected Denver's request for up to $234.5 million to help extend bus and car-pool lanes along U.S. 36 to Boulder by adding tolls for solo drivers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's decision caught local officials off-guard because two months ago, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters came to Denver to tout the metro area's grant application.

An announcement is expected today revealing five cities that have been selected to divvy up $1.1 billion in Urban Partnership Agreement grant money. The U.S. 36 proposal was among the nine finalists.

The money would have helped pay for widening U.S. 36 enough to add a single lane in each direction from where the current car-pool lanes end around Pecos Street to Table Mesa Drive.

The new lanes would have been separated from other lanes by a 4-foot painted buffer zone. Car pools and buses could have used them for free, and solo drivers could have bought their way around traffic congestion in the freeway lanes by paying a toll, electronically deducted from a prepaid account.

It would have been an extension of the solo-driver toll program that the Colorado Department of Transportation opened last year on the Interstate 25 Express Lanes, which connect to the short segment of U.S. 36 car-pool lanes.

Federal officials told Denver area representatives that the grant program may be repeated next year and that the metro area could submit another application.

"We're not giving up," said Debra Baskett, Broomfield's transportation manager. She helped write the grant application, submitted in May, on behalf of the U.S. 36 Mayors and Commissioners Coalition and CDOT.

"I don't know who they did select, or what the reason was we were not selected," she said. "But we were seriously considered. We asked them for a debriefing on it."

The Denver area's application was considered a strong contender for several reasons, not the least of which was Peters' high-profile visit to Denver in June to hype the U.S. 36 project as exactly the type of example the federal government was seeking to showcase.

Much of the groundwork was already in place. Conceptual designs have been drawn as part of FasTracks planning, the beginnings of a working electronic toll-collecting system is in place and RTD had up to $66 million in potential matching money on hand, thanks to voter approval of FasTracks.

Community support also was strong, swayed by presentations in April at Gov. Bill Ritter's transportation summit meeting on toll lanes as a congestion alternative.

flynnk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5247