Transportation concerns and widening Interstate 25 north of Colorado Springs are high on the minds of six Colorado Springs legislators as the 2016 session nears, the lawmakers told residents at a Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance gathering Tuesday night.

The gathering wasn’t the usual platform for laying out legislative priorities – there was no panel table a healthy distance from the audience. Instead, the alliance experimented with getting the five Republicans and one Democrat up close and personal with “speed dating.”

“This will be casual,” alliance CEO Dirk Draper told the crowd of residents and elected officials at a ballroom in The Antlers hotel. Draper had his hands around the only microphone in the room. “Drop your jacket and loosen your tie.”

The audience gathered in groups of 20 while the six legislators rotated among each to pass out business cards, take questions and discuss their legislative agendas.

The 2016 legislative session opens Jan. 13, and many local lawmakers have their eyes on improving rural transportation, ensuring a section of I-25 will be widened and having more accountability for the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The six were a fraction of Colorado Springs’ 14-member delegation and included Republican Sen. Owen Hill, Rep. Dan Nordberg, Rep. Terri Carver, Rep Gordon Klingenschmitt and Rep. Kit Roupe and Democratic Sen. Mike Merrifield.

Carver and Klingenschmitt brought up concerns that the state follow through on a promise to widen I-25 between Monument and Castle Rock. Carver, who sits on the House transportation and energy committee, wants to introduce a bill that would improve the state process for prioritizing transportation projects.

She said I-25 expansion is a top priority.

“We look forward to making that a reality in the very near future,” she said.

While he discussed concerns for I-25, Klingenschmitt also took advantage of the forum to peddle more information on his general mission – to defend religious freedom and personal rights in the legislature – and discussed a bill that he plans to introduce. The first-term representative who is running for state Senate wants to repeal House Bill 1266, passed in 2013, which aligns Colorado health insurance laws with federal law.

Klingenschmitt passed out fliers about the bill that targeted former Rep. Bob Gardener – a former state representative also running for Senate District 12 – as the only Republican who voted 1266 into law.

While some legislators, such as Hill and Nordberg, had general areas of interest, others were specific about the bills they intend to introduce.

Merrifield talked about five potential bills, among them one that would “take a bigger bite” out of a bill he brokered this year to drastically cut back standardized tests and separate teachers’ evaluations from those test results. He is also considering a bill to give municipalities control over minimum wage, as well as a bill that would create a committee to address neighborhoods like areas in southeast Colorado Springs, which continue to struggle post-recession.

Roupe was the only one to rival Merrifield’s pointed list of bills.

“I already have quite a list,” she said, and added that many of her ideas came from community suggestions.

Like other lawmakers, Roupe has eyes on the state’s education budget. But a potential bill she is proud of would address domestic violence convictions and would make a fourth offense a class 5 felony.

Emergency personnel standby a Southwest Airlines plane that rest on the ground after skidding off the runway at Nashville International Airport, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. Officials say three people were injured. (Carson O’Shoney via AP)

Carson O’Shoney