Opponents of the state’s plan to widen Interstate 270 through southwestern Adams County are touting their own experts’ proposal to leave the busy trucking thoroughfare as a four-lane highway, but with every lane tolled to ease congestion.
The alternate plan led by GreenLatinos and Earthjustice also calls for a big boost to mass transit funding and access in the region, discounted or no tolls for local residents, and lining the interstate with green berms and land bridges to absorb pollution and offer safe crossings.
“If you widen it, it’s going to infill,” said Juan Roberto Madrid, with Colorado GreenLatinos. “Within a year or two of completion of the project, it will be at a standstill like it is now. So we have been saying all along, let’s address the air quality component and the health of the community.”
The Colorado Department of Transportation says its preferred alternative to the long-overdue I-270 rebuild is adding one toll-and-transit lane to each direction of the interstate that connects I-70 on the southeast to I-25 above Denver. Two repaved lanes in each direction would remain general traffic lanes, for a total of six lanes across.
CDOT plans to officially file its Draft Environmental Impact Statement under EPA rules Friday, with the preferred alternative highlighted alongside a discussion of a no-action alternative and a trucking industry proposal for three untolled general purpose lanes in each direction. CDOT has said in interviews that the preferred plan best matches guidelines that I-270’s renovation address congestion, safety, crumbling infrastructure and pollution concerns.
Environmental groups and neighborhood advocates wanted their professionally designed, all-tolls alternative included as a viable option in the draft EIS to be released Friday. CDOT has said their alternate plan will be considered alongside other public comments accepted after their draft is published.
State officials also extended the public comment period from 45 days to 60 after some groups noted the holiday season would dampen the level of public response.
Leaving I-270 at two lanes in each direction, all of them dynamically tolled to reflect peak traffic periods, would avoid building new lanes that quickly become congested again, as happened with TREX on I-25 and other widening projects, the alternative plan says. All-tolls would make local truckers and shippers, as well as through-commuters looking for a faster route, pay for roads they use. Adams County and north Denver residents with registered local addresses would pay less, or nothing.
Freight that tries to avoid congestion by using neighborhood streets could be penalized for doing so, or incentivized not to through the tolling system.
Instead of using the right of way to add lanes, the alternate plan envisions green berms and parkways that would help absorb some of the pollution before it hits neighborhoods. “Land bridges” could safely connect communities separated by the concrete canyons of I-270 and I-70, utilizing greenspace to make the bridge in the manner of the cap over I-70 at Columbine St.
“Research has consistently shown that adding capacity to roadways does not alleviate congestion over the long term and people end up driving more,” according to the study by the Architects Foundation’s design assistance team, conducted pro bono for the Colorado environmental and neighborhood advocates involved in the I-270 debate.
“This project certainly represents an opportunity to make an important change before it is too late, and detrimental impacts are locked in for the foreseeable future,” the designers say. State planners on the project have “special burdens of environmental care, because even marginal negative contributions to air quality here represent tipping points on top of already over-burdened residents,” they say.
CDOT officials said they couldn’t comment yet on the alternative proposal, but will consider it carefully among other comments and proposals it receives for the I-270 plans over the next two months.
“We appreciate key stakeholders submitting their feedback ahead of the comment period,” CDOT spokesperson Stacia Sellers said. “The I-270 Improvements Project team received the proposal from GreenLatinos and will respond fully to its recommendations through the Environmental Impact Statement process under NEPA.”