| SR-470 | |||
| Get started | golden | ||
| End | Centennial | ||
| Length | 27 mi | ||
| Length | 44 km | ||
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State Route 470, commonly known as State Highway 470 or SH 470 is a state route in the U.S. state of Colorado. The road is a freeway and is part of the ring road of Denver, the largest city in Colorado. The SR-470 forms the southwestern part of this. The rest is formed by the E-470, and is a toll road. The SR-470 is toll-free and is 44 kilometers long.
Travel directions
State Route 470 at Alameda Way west of Denver.
Just south of Golden, SR-470 exits from US 6 and heads south. After just one kilometer you cross the I-70, which runs from the state of Utah to Denver. The highway then has 2×3 lanes. You pass the large suburb of Lakewood, and at Morrison you cross US 285, a highway to Denver. After this, the highway narrows to 2×2 lanes, passing through an area of many small suburbs on the southwest side of Denver. At Ken Caryl, the highway turns east. One passes the Chatfield Reservoir, a water supply for the conurbation. The highway then has express lanes. South of the highway is Highlands Ranch, a large suburb. At Centennial, State Route 470 at Interstate 25 merges into E-470, which forms Denver’s eastern ring road.
History
According to itypeusa, a complete Denver bypass was not originally planned according to the 1956 Interstate Highway system. Interstate 225 was envisioned as an eastbound bypass through Aurora. However, the region grew very rapidly from the 1960s onwards, initially on the southwest side of Denver. In the late 1960s, the Colorado Department of Highways proposed a partial bypass around Denver to become an Interstate Highway, Interstate 470. The first section to be constructed ran from I-70 west of Denver to I-25 south of Denver. In 1968, I-470 was assigned as the future number for the Denver Beltway.
In 1972 the Final Environmental Impact Statement was published. In 1974, Richard Lamm was elected governor of Colorado, making it one of the focal points to cancel I-470. In 1976 it was decided to scrap the I-470. $176 million over earmarked (of which $158 million is federal funding) was spent on other causes. A significant portion of the money was spent on new urban arterials in southwest Denver’s metropolitan area. These are fairly spacious roads with 2×2 or 2×3 lanes and intersections quite far apart. One of those roads was the Centennial Parkway.
Construction of the Centennial Parkway began in 1980. The first section opened in 1985 in Centennial and then opened in phases west and north until I-70 in 1990. The north end of I-70 was constructed so that the road could later be extended northwards. This section was numbered State Route 470. In August 2000, the highway was extended a short distance north to US 6 in Golden.
The remainder of the then-planned Interstate 470 around Denver is constructed as E-470 (Extension 470) around the east side of Denver as a toll road and the Northwest Parkway as a toll road northwest of Denver. However, the western section between I-70 and US 36 was never constructed.
Express lanes
Between 2016 and 2020, State Route 470 on the south side of Denver will have express lanes between I-25 and Wadsworth Avenue. The express lanes are built in both directions between Wadsworth Boulevard and I-25 over a length of 20 kilometers. There are two express lanes heading west between I-25 and Colorado Boulevard, then one express lane continuing to Wadsworth Boulevard, and one express lane heading east along the entire length of the project from Wadsworth Boulevard to I-25. Since then, this section of State Route 470 has had 2×3 to 2×4 lanes.
Work started on August 10, 2016. The project cost $276 million and was finally completed on June 13, 2020 with a one-year delay.
The express lanes are located on the edge of Douglas County, which grew from 8,000 residents in 1970 to 322,000 residents in 2015. State Route 470 provides access to the fast-growing suburb of Highlands Ranch, which grew from 10,000 residents in 1990 to 115,000 residents in 1990. 2017.
Future
Golden – Broomfield
Studies are currently underway to extend the highway between Golden and Broomfield to close the ring road. An opening in 2010 was planned in 2003, but the highway is not yet under construction. Since 2013, the plans have become more concrete. However, in February 2020, the City of Broomfield withdrew from the project.
Traffic intensities
The western section handles between 51,500 and 77,000 vehicles per day, while the southern section increases to 106,000 vehicles per day. The southern section suffered from congestion until the construction of the express lanes in 2020, because the road had not been widened for a long time due to the increasing housing development in mainly Highlands Ranch.
