E-470
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| E-470 |
|
| Maintained by E-470 Public Highway Authority | |
| Length: | 46.950 mi[1] (75.6 km) |
|---|---|
| Formed: | 1991 |
| South end: |   I-25 / SH 470 in Lone Tree |
| Major junctions: |
 I-70 in Aurora I-76 in Commerce City and Brighton |
| North end: | I-25 in Thornton |
| Major cities: | Aurora Denver |
E-470 is a 46-mile (74-km) limited-access tollway traversing the eastern portion of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area in Colorado. The toll road is not a state highway, but is instead maintained by the E-470 Public Highway Authority.
Contents |
[edit] Route description
The tollway begins at the I-25 / SH 470 interchange in Lone Tree and runs east and north through Aurora, intersecting with I-70. The highway continues north, passing west of Denver International Airport to connect with I-76 in Brighton and Commerce City before curving west and ending at an interchange with I-25 and the Northwest Parkway in Thornton.
[edit] The 470 Beltway
E-470 is the eastern portion of what was originally conceived as I-470, an outer beltway for metropolitan Denver. Plans for this eastern extension of State Highway 470 gained momentum in the 1980s, as Denver moved forward with plans for a new international airport in its corridor. Recognizing the highway's development potential, a number of local governments joined together to create the E-470 Public Highway Authority, a quasi-governmental entity that would construct the highway. The highway would be financed through tolls, a relative rarity in the western U.S. The first section, between I-25 in the south and Parker Road in Douglas County, opened in 1991. The highway was opened segment by segment until the final stretch connecting to I-25 in the north in Adams County opened for traffic in 2003.
The toll rate on E-470, roughly 18 cents per mile[citation needed], is one of the highest rates of any toll road in the United States.[citation needed] E-470 was the first highway in the United States to implement full highway-speed electronic tolling. In its early years, traffic was light as the completed portion was short and traversed a largely undeveloped area. With the opening of Denver International Airport in 1995, E-470 came into its own as a direct route to the airport from the rapidly growing southern tier of the metropolitan area. Upon its completion, the highway provided the same access for northern Colorado, itself a high-growth area. However, perhaps the most significant growth in the region will occur in the E-470 corridor itself, which spawned numerous annexations by member cities; Commerce City has doubled in land area in anticipation of this new development. In the coming decades, 250,000 new residents are expected along the E-470 corridor in Aurora alone, which would nearly double that city's population.
[edit] Ownership and management
The E-470 Public Highway Authority consists of eight member jurisdictions: Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties and the cities of Aurora, Brighton, Commerce City, Thornton, and the town of Parker. In addition to all of these jurisdictions, E-470 also passes through the City and County of Denver near Denver International Airport. Affiliate, non-voting members of the Authority, which the highway does not directly serve, are the cities of Arvada and Greeley, and Weld County and the City and County of Broomfield. Ex-officio members are the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Regional Transportation District. The authority is headquartered in Aurora.
[edit] Exit list
| County | Location | Mile[1] | # | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas | Lone Tree | 0.000 | 1A | I-25 – Colorado Springs, Denver |
South end of E-470; continues west as SH 470 |
| Meridian | 1B | Jamaica Street | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
| 1.711 | 2 | Peoria Street –  Centennial Airport |
|||
| 2.700 | Meridian Toll Plaza | ||||
| Stonegate | 3.502 | 3 | Chambers Road | ||
| 4.380 | 4 | Jordan Road | |||
| Parker | 5.180 | 5 |  SH 83 (Parker Road) |
||
| Arapahoe | Aurora | 8.887 | 9 | Gartrell Road | |
| 10.683 | 10 | Smoky Hill Road | |||
| 13.352 | 13 | Quincy Avenue – Aurora | |||
| 16.150 | South Aurora Toll Plaza | ||||
| 16.451 | 16 | Jewell Avenue | |||
| 19.000 | 19 | 6th Parkway | |||
| 20 | I-70 – Limon, Denver, Aurora |
||||
| Adams | |||||
| 22.610 | North Aurora Toll Plaza | ||||
| 24.477 | 24 | 56th Avenue – Front Range Airport |
|||
| 25.523 | 25 | 64th Avenue | |||
| Denver | 27.849 27.990 |
28 | Peña Boulevard – Denver International Airport |
Signed as exits 28A (east) and 28B (west) | |
| Adams | Commerce City | 30.562 | 31 | 96th Avenue | |
| 32.678 | 32 | 104th Avenue | |||
| 34.130 | 34 | To I-76 west / 120th Avenue |
|||
| 35.491 | 35 | I-76 east – Fort Morgan |
Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| Brighton | |||||
| 38.465 | 38 |  US 85 to I-70 – Fort Morgan, Commerce City, Brighton, Denver |
|||
| 40.220 | Brighton Toll Plaza | ||||
| 43.817 | 43 | Colorado Boulevard | |||
| 44.843 | 45 | York Street | |||
| Thornton | 46.398 46.950 |
47 | I-25 – Fort Collins, Denver |
North end of E-470; continues west as Northwest Parkway | |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Colorado Department of Transportation, Highway Data, accessed October 2007: note that not every interval between mileposts is exactly a mile, explaining why more exits than expected are at the exact milepost
