Golden, Arvada debate route for completion of 470 beltway

With construction imminent on the Northwest Parkway, an 11-mile toll extension of the 470 beltway, debate over the beltway’s missing western link is becoming heated.

Golden doesn’t want the loop to be completed, while Arvada wants it to cut through the heart of Golden.

The western segment of the beltway has been a point of contention since it was first proposed in the 1970s. Opponents, including then-Gov. Dick Lamm, saw it as a spur for sprawl.

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The original alignment for what was once called W-470, would complete the beltway’s circular path around the metro area, which began at U.S. Highway 6 at the south end of Golden. Finishing the loop would mean slicing the town of 17,000 in half, and Golden doesn’t want any part of it, City Manager Mike Bestor said.

The city of Arvada is tired of being a throughway for drivers commuting between Wheat Ridge and Lakewood to the south and the Interlocken area to the north. Arvada wants to extend the Northwest Parkway to at least Highway 93 near Rocky Flats to move regional traffic out of its center.

The 470 beltway, begun in the late 1970s with the construction of C-470 in southwest Denver, wraps around the city to Denver International Airport (DIA). The eastern link, called E-470, will connect DIA to Interstate 25 near 144th Avenue. The Northwest Parkway will connect I-25 to 96th Street near U.S. 36. Both segments are expected to open in 2003.

Golden is closely monitoring a study of the parkway extension being conducted by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Arvada is cooperating with CDOT, despite having completed in June its own study, which looked at three basic alignments for the parkway, said Bill Ray, Arvada’s director of public works and utilities

Arvada’s three alignments were: the original W-470 path through Golden; an alignment through Vauxmont, a planned 1,000-acre mixed-use community, that would clip the southeastern edge of Rocky Flats, the former nuclear-weapons site; and an alignment from Jefferson County Airport to Indian Street alongside Rocky Flats to parallel Leyden Gulch, an area of Arvada.

The study did not consider leaving the parkway unbuilt. Ray said, “Some people perceive that as being some hidden agenda by Arvada for creating more development opportunities, which I can say categorically is not a motivation.”

Arvada consultant Greg Murray has submitted his own study that calls for improving major arterial roads in the area, such as Indiana Street, Wadsworth Boulevard and State Highway 128, instead of completing the beltway’s loop.

That, Murray has said, is what many people in Jefferson County want. Golden’s Bestor agreed. He said that transportation studies for northwestern Jefferson County showed that improving existing roads would mean a better benefit at less cost. “But Arvada, Jefferson County and (CDOT Director Tom) Norton are so gung-ho on building a parkway,” he said. “We’re the little guy. We feel like David surrounded by a bunch of Goliaths.”

Bestor said Golden will monitor the CDOT study and any decision Arvada makes about its study. Norton set off a firestorm when he said in July that any study of a parkway alignment had to include Rocky Flats. It is not known when the CDOT study will be complete.Contact Alisha Jeter Rhines at (303) 440-4950 or e-mail research@bcbr.com.