In this Jan. 7, 2018, photo, traffic backs up on Interstate 70 in Colorado, a familiar scene on the main highway connecting Denver to the mountains The chairman of a committee exploring whether Denver should bid on the 2030 Olympics says buses or giving incentives to truckers to avoid the highway could help keep traffic moving if the city hosted the games. Rob Cohen also says a possible surplus could help pay to improve the highway later. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

DENVER  |  Top Colorado lawmakers say they have struck a deal on transportation funding.

Republican Senate President Kevin Grantham and Democratic House Speaker Crisanta Duran announced the deal on Monday — two days before the 2018 legislative session ends.

They say their compromise would ask Colorado voters in 2019 to borrow $2.34 billion for transportation projects.

Bonds issued to borrow that money would cost the state up to $3.25 billion, including interest, over 20 years. That’s $1.75 billion less than the GOP-led Senate approved in a bill earlier this year.

House Democrats argued that committing that much to transportation bonds would cause cuts to education.

The bulk of the money would be earmarked for state highway projects, with 15 percent going to alternate forms of transportation, such as mass transit.

The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative of 1,300 newspapers, including The Sentinel, headquartered in New York City. News teams in over 100 countries tell the world’s...