Denver’s E-470 traffic increase

The 407 tollway in Denver CO has got some good publicity for its traffic and revenue numbers. A “stunning rise” in 1999, a local report said, and a “sign that people in the metro area need the highway.” The E-470 Public Highway Authority (E-470PHA) has reported 15.3m transactions at the toll booths in 1999, or a daily 42k. That’s indeed a big advance (up nearly 200%) on 1998’s 5.4m or 14.7k daily. In May 99 the tollster opened a 19km (12mi) missing link in the roadway (56th Av to Smoky Hill Rd) allowing for an uninterrupted run between I-25 on the southside and I-70, and direct connections between the south and the airport.

Toll revenues for 1999 were $14.6m, up even more than traffic because of a successful toll increase, from the miserable $3.9m that was collected in 1998. A final section of the highway, which will run from 120th Av to I-25 on the northside, is scheduled to be completed in 2003. The traffic forecasts done for the financing of the road seemed to have erred in overestimating short trips while underestimating long trips on the road. If that pattern continues the final leg will help the toll road revenues more than expected.

Ed DeLozier, exec-dir of the E-470PHA says the toll road – located on the eastern fringe of the metro area – is attracting a lot of traffic from the other crowded north-south routes I-25 and I-225. Aurora Mayor Paul Tauer, also chairman of the Public Highway Authority, is reported as calling the toll road a “blessing” for people in the south and west parts of the metro area who want to travel to Denver airport in the northeast. Hopefully with its final section it will similarly attract patronage from the north and west of the metro area to the airport, and also function as fast beltway for other trips.