Colorado Department of Transportation leaders have given the green light to move forward with an $806-million, five-year project to overhaul part of the aging Interstate 270 corridor in north metro Denver, agency officials announced Tuesday.
CDOT and the Federal Highway Administration published a final environmental impact report and record of decision for the on Tuesday and said early construction work is expected to begin this fall.
The $806 million project will rebuild a six-mile stretch of highway between Interstate 25 and Interstate 70 in Adams County, which was constructed in the 1960s and now sees more than 100,000 vehicles per day.
While CDOT officials expect the project will be funded through multiple sources, details about how much will be federal vs. state funding was not available, agency spokesperson Stacia Sellers said.
Construction will include two general-purpose lanes and one new express lane in each direction, along with replacing 12 bridges, rebuilding the Vasquez Boulevard interchange, adding a pedestrian overpass bridge and improving on- and off-ramps at Interstate 76, state officials said.
“I-270 has needed this kind of attention for a long time,” CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said in a statement, adding that pursuing a more thorough environmental review was “the right call.”
State and federal officials started looking into the environmental impacts of rebuilding I-270 in 2020, starting with an environmental assessment before switching to a more in-depth environmental impact study. Project leaders took hundreds of public comments and feedback from county and city leaders into consideration, CDOT officials said.
One of the outcomes of those conversations was state officials adding a set of to the project, including air quality monitors along the highway; a pilot program to help residents pay for transit and toll passes; improving a section of Colorado 224 (also known as East 74th Avenue) between U.S. 36 and U.S. 6; pilot programs to improve transit along East 60th Avenue and in Commerce City; and helping Adams 14 and Mapleton school districts get grants to pay for electric school buses.
“This is an important next step toward needed improvements to the I-270 corridor that will make a real difference for the people who live, work and travel along this corridor,” Adams County Commissioner Julie Duran Mullica said in a statement.
According to CDOT, the first phase of construction will focus on replacing bridges in the worst shape, including over the South Platte River, Burlington Ditch, Brighton Boulevard and East 60th Avenue. The first phase will also include redoing the roadway.
The second and third phases include more bridge replacements — the York Street, 56th Avenue and Vasquez Boulevard bridges — along with a pedestrian bridge, I-76 ramp improvements and more community enhancement work.
Community response to CDOT’s plans was not universally positive, with several environmental and consumer advocacy groups criticizing the agency’s decision to move ahead with plans to widen the highway.
National nonprofit group was among the organizations who had called for taking a different path.
“CDOT is choosing to widen a highway when it could be investing in solutions that actually move people while protecting the health of the communities along I-270,” Carlos Matutes, GreenLatinos states project manager,
Danny Katz, executive director of state , in January published a statement also asking CDOT and the Federal Highway Administration to pursue a plan that did not widen the highway.
“If people don’t have travel options and they’re just going to be forced to drive, that’s going to lead to pollution, traffic and unnecessary crashes,” Katz said Wednesday. “I don’t see any fundamental increases in travel options in this project.”
