Noise Wall Promises To Block Noise Of C-470 Expansion
By Joel Hillan
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- The construction itself is noisy, but that's nothing compared to the traffic noise created by cars traveling C-470 from Wadsworth Boulevard to Interstate 25.
The Colorado Department of Transportation hosted an open house at the Hilton in Highlands Ranch Wednesday night to talk about the noise walls and make sure it's what neighbors want.
"I'm glad that it's going to be built because it's going to reduce the amount of noise," said Ana Maria Chifalo.
She lives along C-470 and while she loves where she lives, she doesn't love the noise.
"In the evenings during the Summer we would have our windows open instead of using the air conditioning and all night long you could hear the trucks going back and forth," she said.
CDOT says the walls will help, reducing the noise by five to 10 decibels. That's enough to cut noise from traffic in half.
"The wall that they kind of give us doesn't cover the entire area. Most of the neighbors including my home, still look out at the highway," said Robert Kleewein, who lives in Highlands Ranch.
Currently the route is used by 100,000 cars a day, soon that number will be up 40 percent, only making it more unbearable.
"Traffic has increased in the state of Colorado, but especially in the Denver metro area because of so many people moving here and our infrastructure is just not able to keep up with the amount of cars increasing," added Chifalo.
Not all areas will be getting noise walls, just those stretches of C-470 where the environmental assessment claimed it would reduce noise levels.
"It looks really good, except it ends and there's a stretch on both sides of our community that are wide open, and there's no real explanation why," said Kleewein.
This is at the heart of a lawsuit filed in Federal court that was filed in February, which is still pending today.
As part of this project the Highline Canal bike path will close for two months under C-470 starting Monday. The alternate route is County Line Road.
Joel Hillan anchors CBS4 This Morning on weekends as well as reports stories for CBS4 News at 5 and 6 p.m. Follow Joel on Twitter @joelhillan.