Community Pleads In Vain To Thwart I-70 Construction Plan

DENVER, CO – By Alex Burness for The Colorado Independent For nearly three hours on Thursday night, a steady stream of Denverites — citizens, activists, lawyers and politicians — implored the city’s Board of Public Health and Environment to reject a request from infrastructure giant Kiewit Meridiam Partners for permission to do construction work on I-70 at all hours of the day through 2022.

The section of the highway being expanded runs through largely low-income, Latino swaths of northeast Denver, including the zip code a study last year found to be the most polluted in the United States.

Every one of the more than 40 people who spoke in public comment at Thursday’s meeting opposed Kiewit’s plan. Many based their arguments on the fact that ripping up the highway in the dead of night, for up to five days each week, for the next four years, would bring additional harm — sleep loss, asthma, general disruption — to Elyria-Swansea, Globeville and nearby communities of color that are already among Denver’s most vulnerable.

Residents opposed to the planned construction on I-70 packed a hearing inside Denver's City and County Building on Sept. 6,2018. (Photo by Phil Cherner)

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