A $1.2 billion project to alleviate severe traffic congestion through the expansion of 12 miles of highway near Denver, the I-70 widening project has become an infamous illustration of the need for NEPA reforms. The project will provide the first safety and capacity improvements to I-70 since the highway’s construction in 1964 adding one new Express Lane in each direction, auxiliary lanes for safe exiting, and shoulders for accidents and breakdowns.” The Environmental Impact Statement for this stretch of highway took 13 years to complete, involved hundreds of public meetings, and set a record for length—totaling 15,951 pages.
Lead agency: Federal Highway Administration
Project delay: 13+ years
Status: final NEPA permit approved in 2017, now under construction
“This is an affirmation that we’ve double-checked and tripled-checked everything that had to be done from the federal perspective,” said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration. “They have more than met the requirements.”
“If you are flying into DIA and needing to move across the state, an I-70 that flows, that does not break down every day, is going to be a big benefit to tourism, for commerce…If you’re a company — and there are a lot of factories and warehouses in this area — your goods are not sitting in traffic. That’s going to be a big improvement. For a lot of different reasons, this project makes sense.” — Shailen Bhatt, Colorado Department of Transportation Denverite.com