State highway officials Wednesday night tried to reassure residents that taxpayers will be protected under a proposed public-private partnership to rebuild and partially toll Interstate 70 through northeast Denver.
If a private partner defaults or goes bankrupt while building or maintaining the widened roadway, the Colorado Department of Transportation would still own the road and wouldn’t suffer any financial pain, said Mike Cheroutes, director of the state agency that oversees tolling.
“It’s their problem, not our problem,” Cheroutes said.
Cheroutes also told an audience of about 30 at the Swansea Recreation Center that the the state would set rates for the toll lanes which will be affordable and used primarily to eliminate congestion.
“We won’t make a dime off the tolls,” Cheroutes said.
Cheroutes and officials with CDOT outlined their plans to attract a private firm to build and manage that portion of I-70 — which will cost an estimated total of $1.8 billion.
CDOT’s plan for the highways calls for removing the decaying, 50-year-old viaduct on I-70 between Brighton and Colorado boulevards and lowering the highway below grade.
CDOT would add two toll lanes in each direction between I-25 and Tower Road and place a nearly four-acre, landscaped cover over the highway by Swansea Elementary School.
Planners say this alternative — CDOT’s largest project in its history — will cut travel time through the corridor nearly half by 2035. Travel from I-25 to Tower Road will take about an hour within two decades if nothing is done, CDOT says.
By contrast, planners say using the proposed toll lanes would save motorists more than 45 minutes.
The plan will also reconnect the Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods.
But to make way for the expanded highway, CDOT would remove at least 54 homes and 21 businesses.
Critics say the idea of lowering the highway and widening its “footprint” in the Swansea areas will be an environmental calamity.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/montewhaley
