I-70 Viaduct Might Get Rerouted Through Stock Show

It could be another year before the fate of the I-70 viaduct between Vasquez and I-25 is known, but the list of options continues to shrink.

Off the list is the option of dropping the viaduct down onto the road that runs directly under the highway. That option would’ve surely claimed the home of Betty Wonder, whose house has been crammed up against an I-70 on-ramp ever since the feds bought half of the family’s property when the Interstate was built back in the 1960s.

Her house still rattles a bit with each semi truck that passes.

Wonder hopes that the rest of her property will be swallowed up by the rebuilding of the viaduct, which is one of two options still being explored. The other, which would reroute the road, could eat right through the National Western Stock Show; the complex is said to be looking to relocate because it has reached maximum growth capacity in its current location.

Officials familiar with the community input process that the Colorado Department of Transportation is using for the project said the final plan won’t be known until next summer at the earliest.

Running I-70 through National Western would both re-unify the neighborhoods that were split by it and give the stock show a hand in paying back a bond that the city originally issued for construction of the show’s main building, which would be destroyed if the road is rerouted. That bond money could then be paid back by the state.

In the meantime, the Stock Show must go on.
-- Luke Turf