In case you haven’t heard, there’s quite a bit of debate going on right now in Colorado over a proposed pedestrian bridge at the state Capitol that is expected to cost around $29 million split between taxpayer and private funds. Governor Jared Polis believes the bridge could be part of the state’s 150th birthday celebration, though it’s drawn a ton of criticism from the public due to its high price tag, with many believing that the money could be better spent elsewhere.

Amid the criticism, the state has asked Coloradans to offer up their own opinions of the project via an online survey that includes four simple questions.

Before diving into this, let’s address the funding behind the project – Denver Gazette reports “the state has already allocated $8.5 million of taxpayer money to initiate the project, but the remaining funds will need to be raised through private donations. The initial cost is $18 million, but an additional $10 million will be required for future improvements.”

While we all await the results of the ongoing public survey on whether or not the bridge should be constructed, let’s take a look at several things that cost surprisingly less than the foot bridge:

1. Five years of Colorado’s wolf restoration program:

With initial spend on this wolf restoration project starting five years ago, the state has spent $8 million on the project, thus far. With how much conversation the topic gets, you’d almost think it has a higher price tag, but nope – the state could have done what it’s done with the wolf restoration three times and still have more leftover compared to the cost of the proposed bridge.

2. Four years of Bo Nix football:

The budding quarterback star of the Denver Broncos is on a four-year $18.61 million dollar contract, and that includes his $10.36 million dollar signing bonus. With this bonus considered, Nix’s average annual salary is $4.65 million making the $29 million dollar bridge worth six years of Bo Nix football at his current rate.

3. Many years of Colorado Fourteeners Initiative expenses:

According to ProPublica, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative spent about $2 million on expenses in 2023 – or in other words, the cost of the bridge is the equivalent of about 14.5 years of operations for this outdoor recreation non-profit that’s crucial to some of the state’s most popular hikes. It’s also worth noting that this group has a greater plan published on their website that calls for a total of $12.8 million needed for summit trail construction projects and $5.6 million in major improvements needed on existing trails – a total of $18.4 million. Guess what? That entire wishlist is still more than $10 million less than the estimated cost of the proposed bridge. The group would be able to knock out all of those projects and still have enough left over for five years of operations.

4. A double-double from In-N-Out for every single Coloradan:

At last report, an In-N-Out double-double burger costs about $3.40 in Colorado. For a price of $29 million, about 8.5 million double-doubles could be purchased. With about six million residents in Colorado, that’s enough for all the locals to claim their double-double, plus the tourists who happen to be in town, too.

5. The annual cost of addressing homelessness in Colorado Springs:

A 2023 report from Rocky Mountain PBS indicates that Colorado Springs spends about $6.2 million annually on homelessness – at least at that time. With Colorado Springs being the state’s second largest city and on the verge of passing Denver’s population in decades soon to come, you’d expect that cost to be higher, but nope, the proposed bridge could apparently cover about four and a half years of this city expense.

6. The price Denver paid for the land Red Rocks Amphitheatre sits on:

In 1927, the City of Denver purchased the land Red Rocks Amphitheatre sits on for $50,000, which would be about $924,000 today when adjusted for inflation. With those numbers in mind, that would mean that the land the city’s most iconic venue sits on could have been purchased 31 times over for the price of the bridge.

7. A herd of ‘Blue Mustang’ statues, also known as Blucifer:

The city initially agreed to pay sculptor Luis Jiménez $300,000 for the giant blue horse statue outside of Denver International Airport in 1993, though the cost eventually rose to $650,000 by the time the work was installed in 2008. Let’s pretend all of that $650,000 was agreed upon back in 1993 though – that’d be about $1.4 million today. That would mean that in today’s dollars, the city could have a herd of about 21 Blucifers for the price of the pedestrian bridge – imagine how memorable that sight would be to weary travelers. And while we’re at it, the giant blue bear at the Colorado Convention Center cost $424,400 when it was erected in 2005 – about $698,565 today. So, if a herd of 21 Blucifers doesn’t float your boat, maybe 42 giant blue bears will.

8. The salary of the entire Colorado Senate (for 17 years):

The state senate of Colorado is comprised of 35 elected senators, who after getting a raise in January of 2025, can make up to $47,561 annually. In other words, Colorado spends about $1,664,635 annually paying the base salary of all of its state senators. Each senator has a four-year term with only two consecutive terms allowed. If every single senator were to get elected for the maximum of eight years of consecutive service, the salary received by the full state senate would be $13,317,080 – less than half of the cost of the proposed bridge.

9. The amount Denver paid out in public safety lawsuits in 2023:

Per a report from the Denver Gazette, the City of Denver spent about $20 million to settle and close lawsuits related to the conduct of its public safety departments in 2023. Obviously, many people hate to see tax dollars spent on the city getting sued, but that’s still less than the proposed $29 million cost of the pedestrian bridge.

10. The ski hill 36 miles from Denver:

In 2023, Echo Mountain was sold to Jogan Incorporated for $7.35 million, according to a report from BusinessDen. Boasting more than 200 skiable acres with a vertical drop of 600 feet, the latest purchase of this ski hill was priced at about one-quarter of what the proposed bridge could cost.

11. A brand new 2025 Subaru for every resident in Ouray:

According to Kelley Blue Book, pricing for a brand new 2025 Subaru Crosstrek starts at $27,980. For a cool price of $29 million, one could purchase 1,036 of this popular car – or in other words, enough for every resident of the 920-person town of Ouray to get a brand new vehicle with a few left over.

12: A potential Netflix streaming service sales tax for every Coloradan household:

In case you missed it, a recent court ruling pushed forward the move to charge state sales tax on streaming services in Colorado, which would mean providers of digital services would be subject to paying a 2.9% Colorado sales tax. Let’s pretend the way this shakes out is that this sales tax cost gets passed on to the consumer – with Netflix premium costing $24.99 per month, that would be a state sales tax of 72 cents per month. Now, let’s pretend that all of Colorado’s 2.3 million households have this top-notch tier of Netflix service, paying about $8.70 per year in additional sales tax. The entire sales tax that would be collected throughout the year from all of these households combined would be about $20 million – still less than the cost of the proposed pedestrian bridge.

Do you think the proposed pedestrian bridge is a good idea? Or a bad one? A four-question survey about the project can be found here.

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