The Colorado Dept. of Transportation is betting that its biggest project ever—the $1.2-billion Central 70 expansion—will prove that highway public-private partnerships work better in Colorado than they have in other areas of the country. The Interstate 70 project includes reconstruction of a 10-mile stretch of freeway from Brighton Boulevard in central Denver to Chambers Road in Aurora to the east.
The project adds one new express toll lane in each direction and removes a 57-year-old, 1.8-mile-long viaduct, replacing it with a lowered highway that includes a 1,000-foot-long cap—a covered portion of the highway that will be the site of a four-acre park to help reconnect neighborhoods long divided by the freeway.