Highways in Denver Area --- I-70 / Beltway / 470 (Aurora, Boulder: house, condos)

[tpabes]

I was curious if there have been any more developments on the future of I-70. I read awhile back they were doing studies about what they should do considering future use, such as rail and expanding US 24 and 50 to be like another interstate per say. Also read that Vail was looking into "tunneling" the interstate through town. Any more on these developments? What would you like to see?

Also we have been talking about the Heartland Expressway in the South Dakota and Nebraska forums. The route for Colorado is US 24 from the Springs to Limon and then 71 through Fort Morgan/Brush up to the Nebraska line, clear up to Rapid City. This would be an alternate route for some on I-25. My main question is, good for Colorado or bigger transportation problems to have for this be a high priortiy?

[steveco.]

Right now there is such a need to improve the existing highways around the state that I don't really see a whole lot of support for this particular highway. There has already been a proposal that is a lot like this but was going to be a tollway that bypassed denver but ran parallel to it out on the eastern plains. If I recall correctly it died because of the difficulty it took to get land from private parties. Traffic out in that area is fairly light and demand for limited access highways out east is not happening. The only thing this would generate is more of a burden on our already maxed out transportation dept.

[tfox]

The I-70 mountain corridor from Denver west into the mountains is probably one of the most pressing problems right now. There is talk of widening the interstate to three lanes all the way through to Vail (I think everyone agrees that 3 lanes through Glenwood Canyon would be basically impossible, so Eagle or Edwards is probably the limit). Right now, I-70 goes from 3 lanes to down to 2 about 5 miles east of Idaho Springs. There is also talk of a mass-transit from DIA along I-70. The problem is that either solution is going to be insanely expensive (I've seen estimates of up to $4B for the highway alone, with a similar amount for transit). Political groups have lined up behind one solution or the other and there's probably no way anything will get done unless a solution includes both highway and transit. Plus, highway expansion would probably obliterate historic Idaho Springs completely, so there's understandable opposition to that, probably leading to a very costly mitigation (tunneling or stacking) to make it feasible. So, I-70 mountain expansion is essentially dead until the state can come up with the billions to fund it. In an era where the state can't even afford to maintain our current crumbling highways, there's no way this is going to happen unless the our budget problems get fixed.

Within Denver, we are more likely to see a major I-70 project. Commuter Rail along I-70 to the airport is a sure thing as it's part of the RTD's Fastracks project that is already funded. Along the highway, CDOT is preparing for an expensive series of reconstruction projects along a stretch of highway that is long past its designed lifetime. There is talk of rerouting I-70 slightly to the north as part of that project, though it would jog back south again just in time to meet up at the current mousetrap interchange with I-25. However, the actual routing is not yet determined. CDOT is very short on money, so this project is not proceeding very quickly, but time is ticking away at the current viaducts, such that it is becoming more expensive to keep applying band-aids to the current roads as it would be to rebuild them.

As for Heartland Expressway towards NE and the similar Ports-to-Plains to TX, my impression is that those projects are designed to upgrade existing roads to handle more through truck traffic, but I don't think that there's any plans to turn them into limited-access freeways, at least not in Colorado. You don't hear much about those projects unless you hunt for the information, actually, probably since they don't intersect the metro area (I believe they head through Limon). Again, CDOT has no money, so these things proceed at a glacial pace.

There is also a proposal for a private-sector limited-access tollway about 30 miles east of I-25, but this proposal is fraught with political issues -- nobody wants a highway through their back yard and the proposal is going basically nowhere at this time. Since it's privately run, there's a lot of opposition to the idea of granting eminent domain to a private, for-profit company, and if there's no eminent domain, there's no highway. I also question whether such a road would be such a good thing -- It seems like all it would do is just open up more prairie for sprawl; I'm not sure that's what we need.

The Vail tunnel is another private sector proposal -- they claim it would cost about a billion dollars to implement, but that they would more than make up the difference in real estate development along the existing corridor. However, in the current tightened financing environment, I doubt that anyone is going to loan them a billion dollars for a tunnel against future real estate potential. This project may happen one day, but I'd guess it's completely on ice for the time being.

[tpabes]

Very interesting, thanks for the info. I couldn't believe the cost of just making Eisenhower Tunnel bigger for expansion, let alone the rest of the interstate. Probably the only way they could save Idaho Springs is to do some type of elevated road over the at grade interstate, if that is even possible. Nebraska is in the same boat as far a transportation funding, we are at the point where we can basically just maintain what we have for roads. I think I read that Vail was a private deal, that they could get enough people from town to "invest" in the project. Lord knows they are one of the few places that could so something like this. I didn't think that Heartland would be high on the radar for Colorado, considering what is happening on the front range and the I-70 problem already mentioned. Another ?, you mention reconstructing I-70 through Denver, any future improvements to I-76 since there is more and more growth out that way, especially near Brighton?

[socalover]

Anyway around this? Is there a monthly pass at a reduced rate? $5 extra a day is a bit much. Why would a city put a toll on its beltway/perimeter(whatever it's called) that goes around the city ? If I owned a hybrid, would that help? Would a hybrid put me in the carpool lane?

[tfox]

No monthly pass, no discount. Hybrid won't help. Yes, it is the most expensive toll road in the country. Luckily, E-470 is easily avoided since it's so far out east; and it's not on the way to anywhere (except DIA). If you don't live around it, you'll likely never need to get on it. C-470 (the southwestern portion of it) is toll-free, so that isn't part of the toll road, in case you are wondering.

[Mikieo415]

There is no discount available. Hybrids do not give you a free pass into the carpool lanes either. The logic of the car pool lanes (HOV) is to reduce the amount of cars on the road for congestion reasons, not for emissions reductions. There is a long story on how the road even came about being built. In short, it was not built under the Eisenhower interstate system due to funding issues among other things. Loans were taken out to pay for the construction of E-470 and the northwest parkway and they are being re-payed with the tolls. The tolls are expected to be removed I think in 30 years or so. As the tollway gets more use with the development of the eastern suburbs the tolls are expected to fall.

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by Mikieo415

There is no discount available. Hybrids do not give you a free pass into the carpool lanes either. The logic of the car pool lanes (HOV) is to reduce the amount of cars on the road for congestion reasons, not for emissions reductions.

This was the logic behind the car pool lanes in California, too. Unfortunately the politicians seemed to think there was some benefit to allowing single user hybrids to use the car pool lanes, even though they did nothing to relieve congestion. They issued stickers for hybrid users to place on their cars so they could use the car pool lanes as single occupant vehicles. The purpose behind the car pool lanes was completely ignored when the politicians allowed hybrids into them. The added congestion in the car pool lanes causes the people who were already carpooling to have to contend with more traffic on the already crowded roadways. This probably resulted in worse mileage for the other vehicles on the road, and thus, MORE pollution!

[steveindenver]

Not only does this **** road serve one and only purpose, moving people from the airport to highlands ranch (ick) but the alternative routes (tower road for some of it) had their speed limits lowered (55 to 40 for tower) and stoplights added to decrease competition.

Good job Colorado.

[vegaspilgrim]

E-470 really is a waste of a road. From where I live back at home in SE Aurora, it would be an extremely convenient way to get to the airport, but I'd have to pay something like $10.00 round trip. Talk about rip off! Instead I normally end up taking Buckley all the way to Pena Blvd. And also, there's no reason why roads like Gun Club Rd and Tower shouldn't go straight through from SE Aurora all the way to E-470. They don't because then they would compete with E-470, taking away their revenues.