Posted on 04/19/2019 1:06:17 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
In August 2018, the Colorado Department of Transportation broke ground on Central 70, a massive five-year (at minimum) project intended to reimagine and revitalize a stretch of Interstate 70 through Denver — and construction on the I-270 flyover to eastbound I-70 will result in a large stretch of the highway being closed at 10 p.m. tonight and staying that way for the entire weekend.
The timing of this temporary shutdown is noteworthy, given that it follows in the wake of a new national report that rips Central 70 and argues that rather than expanding the existing roadway, CDOT should tear the whole thing down.
Given that Central 70 construction has been under way for months, for good or ill (those complaining about a York ramp closure causing unprecedented neighborhood traffic nightmares would undoubtedly opt for the latter descriptor), shifting such massive gears wouldn't seem to be an option at this point. But Ben Crowther, a transportation fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Congress for the New Urbanism and overseer of the organization's 2019 "Freeways Without Futures" study that included I-70, emphasizes that "it's never too late to stop a highway project."
Indeed, Crowther reveals, "I have tracked 37 different examples of highway projects that were being built through urban environments that strong community opposition eventually halted." These findings are compiled in a separate CNU offering, "Never Too Late to Stop the Bulldozer."
This history cheers Brad Evans, the man behind the Denver Cruisers bike rides and a founder of Ditch the Ditch, which he characterizes as "a loosely assembled group of people who have been opposed to this project." In his words, "We've had a governor change-up and we might have a mayor change-up in Denver. And those two things could be good for rethinking this disaster."
(Excerpt) Read more at westword.com ...
PING.
Here’s one for the Colorado ping list
Yeah, a tree-lined boulevard with roundabouts in place of a major highway?!? Probably with traffic lights every 300 feet. I'm sure that would speed the commuters to their destinations. (BTW-I absolutely hate roundabouts.)
The governor change up is a gay guy from Boulder. You want the Governor to do your bidding?! Those who oppose the widening of I-70 are stupidly dumb. The neighborhoods near the project are poverty stricken crap holes. When the project is finished, everything near it will be much better.
I do not understand. It seems to me that the neighborhoods would be much safer with the traffic diverted onto a freeway rather than on surface streets. Wherever there are insufficient thoroughfares, traffic will go through residential neighborhoods. That can’t be good for safety, crime prevention, or property values.
When I was stationed in San Diego in the ‘90s, those red left turn arrows at the intersections drove me up the wall.
When I came home to Colorado, the damn red arrows started showing up here.
As well as the roundabouts that I saw overseas.
Ugh!!!
“(BTW-I absolutely hate roundabouts.) “
They love them here in Northern Colorado. It’s so European.
Driving around/thru Denver is a freaking death trap.
Roundabouts eliminate traffic lights. The rest of the plan my really suck. I don’t know. But roundabouts DO eliminate traffic lights.
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
Colorado must have more money than they need to moving into this area.
Big push by the rich leftists in Dallas to tear down the expressway through town so that travelers have to detour through the ghetto to get from Oklahoma to Houston.
They have the backing of developers who want to get their hands on the real estate.
Roundabouts can be very beneficial when two two lane roads cross. They are a mess that causes wrecks when multilane highways cross. Just look at some of the non-Russian European wreck videos on YouTube.
I hate driving through Denver. There was NO street planning in this town whatsover. Of course it's really several cities that overlap one another but you can't get on a North-South street and expect it to go very far before it deadends into something else. There are no easy ways to get from point A to point B without getting funneled to a high volume freeway.
I now have family-relation reasons to be visiting Denver on more frequent occasions. I guess I will be learning what is most aggravating to drivers in Denver.
Activist tripe.
Roundabouts can be very beneficial ....
A firefighter sold people in a neighborhood in Boulder that they no longer had fire protection as the firetrucks could not get through the circle jerk, roundabout.
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