Possible canceled freeways in the Denver area/area questions

[Revive 755]

I came across an older, mid 1970's transportation planning document today for Denver in Northwestern University's Transportation Library.  Due to lack of time, I was only able to skim the document, but there appeared to be two corridors that had been recommended for upgrades:

* A Quebec Street/Parker Road corridor - Starting from I-70 near/at I-270, then south along Quebec Street to Parker Road, then along Parker Road to some point south of I-225.  Was the wide median along Quebec near I-70 built for this facility?

* A facility tying into US 36 near Boulder then angling NE to some unspecified point.  So are the Foothills Parkway and the Diagonal Highway offspring from this proposal?

There were a couple other corridors that were considered for freeway in some of the alternate transportation system plans but did not seem to be adopted in the final plans:

* Appeared to be a facility following US 85 northward from somewhere near Littleton, crossing over I-25 in the downtown area, possibly running through downtown before crossing back over I-25 and proceeding north along Pecos Street to at least I-76.

* A connection between CO 470 and CO 58

* A westward extension of the Sixth Street freeway to end at the CO 470 extension.

* Possibly an east-west facility west of I-25 near Arapahoe Road.

[Milepost61]

For years CDOT (back then CDH) had a phantom CO-35 in its route log extending from Stapleton Airport south to Hampden Avenue. That would be the Quebec St corridor you saw. It's a good assumption the wide median on Quebec was meant to be filled in with a freeway. The freeway would have had to blow directly through neighborhoods south of Stapleton Airport so I can understand why it was never done.

I've seen documents that showed Foothills Parkway continuing south of US 36, but not up the Diagonal Hwy to Longmont. The Diagonal Hwy expressway was finished in the mid '70s and it also interestingly has a wide median, but this is the first mention I've heard of of it being potential freeway.

The US 85 facility you mention might be part of the "Skyline Freeway" I ran across in a planning document once. It showed it running through the heart of Lower Downtown roughly along Blake Street.

[Zmapper]

If there is any possibility, could you ask/upload/link to the document online? I would love to see what was planned for Denver.

Denver never really did have its urban neighborhoods divided by freeways like other cities, which is rather pleasant. In ways, the freeway layout of Denver more resembles a freeway network in Europe than in a typical American city of the same size.

I have also heard that a freeway was planned to parallel Downing Street. Do you recall reading about such a plan?

[Revive 755]

I didn't manage to get a copy made, but if I did, it was a colored map in which it would be difficult to tell the difference between highways and transit lines; I'm going to try interlibrary loaning it so I can get it near a color scanner.

[Zmapper]

Yes, that would be very much appreciated, Revive 755. 

[Revive 755]

Placeholder from a different document - couldn't find the same one as last week on the shelves today.



I know it's hard to tell the difference between the limited access facilities and general artierials, but the map has the Quebec corridor stopping at Parker Road and shows a gap between the CO 119/Diagonal Highway and US 36 facilities