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Follow TURFColorado connection to Trans Texas Corridor project approved
Link to Ports-to-Plains Coalition blog here.
It states:
"This portion on Interstate 70 from Tower Road to Brighton Blvd is part of the designated Ports-to-Plains High Priority Corridor on the National Highway System. This is a critical connection for the movement of goods into and out of the Denver metro area and Interstate 25. CDOT is currently making improvements to the portion on the I-70 Ports-to-Plains Corridor from Colfax to Tower Road. The Ports-to-Plains Alliance continues to advocate improvements north on Limon on Highway 71, the Heartland Expressway, to provide an alternative for trucks using this congested area of Denver when they do not need to be traveling through the metro area on Interstate 25."
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Link to Denver Post article here.
Note there’s no mention of the lanes being tolled until the very last line of the story!
Denver City Council backs I-70 rehab project, with reservations
By Jon Murray
The Denver Post
04/07/2014
A controversial proposal to remake Interstate 70 through northeast Denver won cautious support Monday from the City Council.
The $1.8 billion project would lower the freeway below ground and add a landscaped, 800-foot cap to reconnect the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. It also would widen I-70 to 10 lanes. But some aspects still are in flux.
That uncertainty, and a desire for more public input, gave some council members pause in the 10-3 vote in favor of the council's proclamation. Debbie Ortega, Paul Lopez and Susan Shepherd voted no.
Earlier, Ortega's request to delay the vote a week — to make time for a new public hearing, as urged by several sign-holders — failed 7-6.
Though the proclamation was symbolic, the Colorado Department of Transportation sought it to demonstrate to potential federal-funders that local support is rock-solid.
The council urged CDOT to improve neighborhood connections even more and reduce the larger freeway's impact as much as possible.
Councilwoman Judy Montero said the project had the potential to start righting the havoc wrought decades ago by the I-70 viaduct.
"Because of its current state," she said, "the viaduct is unsafe, which makes this current reconstruction mandatory."
But last week, a council committee heard an earful against the project, and a litany of opponents sent e-mails to the council. Some argue the project won't reconnect the area enough. Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher also has weighed in to say a 10-lane freeway would be an unacceptable imposition on northeast Denver.
Lopez said door-to-door conversations buttressed his belief that CDOT and the city should move I-70 elsewhere. CDOT has rejected the costly alternative of realigning I-70 by beefing up Interstate 270 to the north.
The project would reconstruct I-70 between Brighton Boulevard and Tower Road, adding two toll lanes in each direction to three existing lanes.