A plan to attract a private partner to operate and manage a wider and tolled in northeast Denver will be the focus of a public meeting Wednesday night.
Officials with the Colorado Department of Transportation and the state’s High Performance Transportation Enterprise — which oversees toll roads in the state — will be on hand to discuss the process involved in finding a private firm to oversee the I-70 east expansion.
“It’s really a chance to let the public know what kind of partner we are looking for,” said Amy Ford, spokeswoman for CDOT.
The meeting will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Swansea Recreation Center, 2650 E. 48th Ave. in Denver.
CDOT said it wants the public to help the agency prepare a “request for qualifications” document, which describes the I-70 east project and asks private firms to submit their qualifications.
A public-private partnership would call for a private partner to assume operations and maintenance of I-70 once it has designed and built it, Ford said.
A similar arrangement is being used for the widening of U.S. 36 with the addition of an HOV lane between Boulder and Denver. That project became the target of critics, who said CDOT did a poor job of telling the public the terms of its contract with .
The east I-70 proposal is also attracting detractors who say the $1.8 billion plan ignores the environmental, social and economic pitfalls of widening I-70 through the Swansea and Elyria neighborhoods.
CDOT wants to remove the 50-year-old viaduct between Brighton and Colorado boulevards, lower the highway below grade, add two tolled express lanes in each direction and build an almost 4-acre landscaped cover over the interstate by Swansea Elementary School.
Some want CDOT to instead move I-70 entirely from the neighborhood and run the highway further north near I-270 and I-76. CDOT’s current plan is a “billion-dollar boondoggle,” said Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher.
