Three major highway corridors, E-470, I-70 and I-225, give Aurora workers and businesses fast access to the region.

E-470
The 47-mile E-470 is a metro outer belt and tollway that runs along Aurora’s eastern perimeter. The road links Aurora to the metro area’s southern and northern suburbs and provides them a direct route to Denver International Airport. E-470 was completed in 2003 and is currently the scene of major commercial and residential development in Aurora.

I-70
I-70 is the Aurora/Denver metro area’s major east/west corridor. It is the heart of the Rocky Mountain region’s most significant industrial and distribution complex. In Aurora, the corridor is home to 12 million square feet of distribution space in Class A industrial parks with room to grow.

I-225
I-225 runs north/south through the heart of Aurora. It ties the I-70 industrial corridor on the north to the region’s largest office district along I-25 to the south. The highway simplifies access to Aurora’s central commercial and office districts and the Anschutz Medical Campus and Fitzsimons Life Science District.

A new interchange serving the Anschutz Medical Campus and Fitzsimons Life Science District located at I-225 and Colfax Avenue/17th Place in Aurora received a total of $13,825,000 in federal funding 2009 to begin the first few stages of construction. A new interchange has a price tag of $43 million.

The Anschutz/Fitzsimons site, which currently employees 15,900, is the home of the University of Colorado Denver health sciences operations, the University of Colorado Hospital, The Children’s Hospital, the new Veterans Administration Hospital, and several other centers for health care, biomedical research and workforce development. In addition to the employee numbers mentioned above, there are patients, students, faculty, volunteers and visitors that visit the site for a total of 22,797 people visiting Anschutz/Fitzsimons everyday. These visits account for 58,000 car trips in and out of the site on a daily basis. The current interchange that serves the majority of this traffic was built decades ago and designed to have a capacity of 4,000 vehicles per day.

At build-out, the Anschutz/Fitzsimons site will be a $5.2 billion investment, consist of approximately 18.5 million square feet and employ 44,569 people (direct jobs, no multiplier).

The four construction phases of the interchange: 

1. $1.1 million – Construction of SB on-ramp from Colfax Avenue to I-225
2. $11.3 million – construction of NB on-ramp from Colfax Avenue to I-225.
3. $16.2 million – construction of SB off-ramp from I-225 to Colfax Avenue/17^th Place, NB off-ramp I-225 to 17^th Place, and 17^th Place overpass.
4. $13.8 million – construction of 17^th Place to overpass at I-225.

Secured federal funding for the interchange:

• $1,425,000 from the FY09 federal budget (Omnibus bill).
• $1.1 million from CDOT for phase 1 construction (federal economic stimulus).
• $11.3 million from DRCOG for phase 2 construction (federal economic stimulus).

Other Major Highways
Other major interstates in the vicinity include (I-76 and I-270), plus regional highways (US 6, US 36, US 85, US 285). Nearly 700 motor freight companies use these roadways to serve the metro area and beyond.  In addition, Aurora’s high-capacity local roadways supply excellent circulation and traffic flows to all points throughout the city. Easy access to Denver International Airport occurs via I-70, 56^th Avenue, Airport Boulevard, and Pena Boulevard.

The $1.67 billion T-REX (Transportation Expansion Project) project was completed in 2006 that added 19 miles of light rail, bridges for pedestrian access and smoother highway merging, and improved 17 miles of highway through southeast Denver, Aurora, Greenwood Village, Centennial, and Lone Tree. The project is the result of a unique collaboration between the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the Regional Transportation District (RTD). 

Links

Colorado Department of Transportation

Denver Regional Council of Governments

E-470 Public Highway Authority