E-470

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E-470 is a 47-mile (75-km) limited-access tollway traversing the eastern portion of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area in Colorado. The toll road is not a Colorado state highway.

The tollway begins at the I-25/C-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 and Broomfield.

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 Colorado 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 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 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.

The toll rate on E-470, roughly 18 cents per mile, is one of the highest rates of any toll road in the United States.[1] 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] Interchanges

E-470 has interchanges with the following roads and highways:

Exit 1a - I-25/C-470 in Lone Tree
Exit 1b - Jamaica Street in unincorporated Douglas County (partial interchange - westbound exit/eastbound entrance only)
Exit 2 - Peoria Street in unincorporated Douglas County
Exit 3 - Chambers Road in unincorporated Douglas County
Exit 4 - Jordan Road in unincorporated Douglas County
Exit 5 - Parker Road (Colorado State Highway 83) in Parker
Exit 9 - Gartrell Road in Aurora
Exit 10 - Smoky Hill Road in Aurora
Exit 13 - Quincy Avenue in Aurora
Exit 16 - Jewell Avenue in Aurora
Exit 19 - Sixth Avenue Parkway in Aurora
Exit 20 - I-70 in Aurora
Exit 24 - 56th Avenue in Aurora
Exit 25 - 64th Avenue in Aurora
Exit 28 - Peña Boulevard in Denver
Exit 31 - 96th Avenue in Commerce City
Exit 32 - 104th Avenue in Commerce City
Exit 34 - 120th Avenue in Commerce City
Exit 35 - I-76 in Commerce City/Brighton (partial interchange - westbound I-76 to southbound E-470 and northbound E-470 to eastbound I-76 only)
Exit 38 - US 85 in unincorporated Adams County
Exit 43 - Colorado Boulevard in unincorporated Adams County
Exit 45 - York Street in unincorporated Adams County
Exit 46 - I-25 in Thornton/Broomfield