Express lanes designed to make I-270 safer, only highway in state to never receive major upgrade
After six years of research and meeting with the community, the Colorado Department of Transportation is officially ready to upgrade I-270.
CDOT says this is a highway that more than 100,000 drivers use daily to travel to and from I-25, Highway 36, and I-70. This is also an area with a high rate of crashes.
CDOT says this highway has been in effect since 1965 and is one of the only highways in Colorado to never receive a major upgrade. CDOT says these upgrades are needed to improve safety, travel time reliability, freight operations, and multimodal connectivity on a congested interstate that carries more traffic than it was designed to carry.
Upgrades on I-270 include replacing 12 aging bridges along the I-270 corridor, adding one express lane in both directions to maintain time reliability, rebuilding the Vasquez interchange to help with bottlenecking, upgrading the ramps along I-76, York Street, and Quebec, and adding extended auxiliary lanes to help with merging onto I-270. CDOT says there are a lot of crashes along I-270, so these changes are needed.
"A lot of them end up closing the interstate just because there really aren't any safe shoulder spaces for our emergency responders to pull off onto," said Stacia Sellers, CDOT spokesperson. "By widening the section of I-270 and adding in more shoulder space and express lanes, we are able to make sure that traffic keeps moving during these crash conditions."
CDOT will also build a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge over I-270, add new sidewalks and multi-use paths to provide safer crossings at Brighton Boulevard.
CDOT says while the project is underway, the construction work will mostly be done overnight. The project itself is not scheduled to start until the end of October, and the entire project will last until early 2033. This is just phase one of three.
CDOT says the project will cost more than $800 million, and the money comes from state funding. CDOT also says they are committed to nine different community enhancements. Some of the upgrades include adding more trees and plants along parks and trails that are adjacent to I-270 and monitoring air quality throughout construction. CDOT says there are already air quality monitors in place adjacent to I-270.
CDOT is also looking into traffic demand solutions. This includes asking drivers to carpool when they can but also adding micro transit shuttle services.
