DENVER -- Rebecca White of CDOT says taking what is now the elevated portion of I-70 through central Denver and burying it under a four-acre park will be a big change for the neighborhoods in the area, but she says it will be worth it.
“What we’re doing for the community is taking that mammoth structure away, lowering the highway much like I-25 in the Washington Park, but placing a four acre cover on top to help and bring the neighborhood back together,” she told Anne Trujillo on this week’s Politics Unplugged.
Built in 1964, the viaduct was designed to hold an amount of traffic that Denver surpassed in the 80s.
“We’re trying to adjust mobility and the infrastructure along that entire stretch,” White said, adding that just getting to this point in the redesign has been a 14-year process.
“We’ve had hundreds of public meetings over these 14 years. We’ve gone door to door,” she said. “We have had neighborhood chats, everything we can to get opinions and that’s how we came up with the plan to really reverse that viaduct concept on its head. Let's not rebuild a bridge with a bridge. Let’s take this in a new direction.”
Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.
