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Fight brews over location of I-70 viaductGene Davis, DDN Staff WriterMonday, December 21, 2009 | |
The Democratic Party of Denver has decided to back one of Denver’s oldest and poorest neighborhoods in its quest to avoid having a viaduct be built in its backyard.
The Executive Committee of the Democratic Party of Denver passed a resolution last week urging the City and County of Denver to consider a plan developed by the Elyria neighborhood that would build a partial tunnel for I-70. Currently, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is considering improving the I-70 corridor through Denver by building a viaduct through the Elyria neighborhood.
Tom Anthony, president of the Elyria Neighborhood Association, believes that CDOT’s plan would put the area’s future at risk.
“We’re in the process of being outsiders in our own neighborhood,” he said. “People are being robbed of the opportunity to create their own future.”
The 1.6-mile I-70 viaduct between Brighton and Colorado boulevards was built in 1964 and is considered structurally deficient. As a result, CDOT began the involved public process at the end of 2003 to consider options for improving or replacing the viaduct. According to CDOT Spokeswoman Mindy Crane, the state agency considered the partial tunneling of I-70 as one of more than 80 possible options when the planning process began. But because the tunnel option wouldn’t allow access to the I-70-I-25 interchange, would require building the highway through the South Platte River, and could result in “unacceptable effects on aquatic and ecological resources,” the possible option was eliminated early on the process, she said. Instead, CDOT has settled on the options of realigning I-70 through the Elyria neighborhood, or replacing the existing viaduct with a wider viaduct. “We went threw a very detailed screening, public involvement process to get to these,” said Crane.
But the Democratic Party of Denver and Elyria Neighborhood are still hoping that CDOT and the City of Denver will reconsider the partial tunneling plan. Under CDOT’s proposed realignment plan through Elyria, estimates show that 7 million square feet of property would be condemned, dozens of businesses and potentially hundreds of residents would be displaced. Additionally, since the proposed I-70 realignment plan was made public in 2005, property values in Elyria near the proposed new route have fallen 70 percent, according to the Democratic Party of Denver. Meanwhile, foreclosure filing rates in the area increased by 638 percent from 2000 to 2007.
“The Elyria 2020 Vision Plan includes proposal that could help improve the neighborhood by reducing pollution, adding parks over the proposed tunnel, converting industrial brown fields into green fields, improving the Platte River Greenway as a model for sustainable development, reducing the forced isolation of the community, and enhancing the economic viability, in part by planning a fixed rail station at the National Western Stock Show complex between Globeville and Elyria,” said a statement from the Democratic Party of Denver.
Crane, however, said it’s unlikely that CDOT will again consider and evaluate Elyria’s plan. It’s taken six years of public meetings, evaluations and studies for CDOT to settle on the two proposed alternatives Ń which they believe are the best options Ń she said. Going forward, CDOT is looking to involve stakeholders before they settle on a preferred alternative. But as an e-mail correspondence between Anthony and Jody Erikson of the Keystone Center, a public policy non-profit that serves as a facilitator for CDOT, the state agency is looking for people to collaborate, not fight, with their plan.
| Comments: |
| Tom Anthony @ 2010-01-14 19:07:18 | If you view the draft EIS on the I-70 East Corridor DEIS site you will see the two tunnel alternatives studied went between 60' and 90' deep. The Elyria Tunnel is about 30 feet deep and emerges near Brighton Blvd, not the Platte River. CDOT never studied our plan. |
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