| Highway Name: | E-470 |
| Maint: | E-470 Public Highway Authority |
| Length Mi: | 46.950 |
| Length Round: | 1 |
| Length Ref: | [1] |
| Established: | 1991 |
| Direction A: | South |
| Terminus A: | in Lone Tree |
| Junction: | in Aurora in Commerce City and Brighton |
| Direction B: | North |
| Ending Terminus: | in Thornton |
| Cities: | Aurora Denver |
E-470 is a 46-mile (74-km) limited-access tollway traversing the eastern portion of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area in Colorado. The toll road is not a state highway, but is instead maintained by the E-470 Public Highway Authority.
The tollway begins at the I-25 / SH 470 interchange in Lone Tree and runs east and north through Aurora, intersecting with I-70. The highway continues north, passing west of Denver International Airport to connect with I-76 in Brighton and Commerce City before curving west and ending at an interchange with I-25 and the Northwest Parkway in Thornton.
E-470 is the eastern portion of what was originally conceived as I-470, an outer beltway for metropolitan Denver. Plans for this eastern extension of State Highway 470 gained momentum in the 1980s, as Denver moved forward with plans for a new international airport in its corridor. Recognizing the highway's development potential, a number of local governments joined together to create the E-470 Public Highway Authority, a quasi-governmental entity that would construct the highway. The highway would be financed through tolls, a relative rarity in the western U.S. The first section, between I-25 in the south and Parker Road in Douglas County, opened in 1991. The highway was opened segment by segment until the final stretch connecting to I-25 in the north in Adams County opened for traffic in 2003.
The toll rate on E-470, roughly 27 cents per mile, is one of the highest rates of any toll road in the United States. E-470 was the first highway in the United States to implement full highway-speed electronic tolling. In its early years, traffic was light as the completed portion was short and traversed a largely undeveloped area. With the opening of Denver International Airport in 1995, E-470 came into its own as a direct route to the airport from the rapidly growing southern tier of the metropolitan area. Upon its completion, the highway provided the same access for northern Colorado, itself a high-growth area. However, perhaps the most significant growth in the region will occur in the E-470 corridor itself, which spawned numerous annexations by member cities; Commerce City has doubled in land area in anticipation of this new development. In the coming decades, 250,000 new residents are expected along the E-470 corridor in Aurora alone, which would nearly double that city's population.
The E-470 Public Highway Authority consists of eight member jurisdictions: Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties and the cities of Aurora, Brighton, Commerce City, Thornton, and the town of Parker. In addition to all of these jurisdictions, E-470 also passes through the City and County of Denver near Denver International Airport. Affiliate, non-voting members of the Authority, which the highway does not directly serve, are the cities of Arvada and Greeley, and Weld County and the City and County of Broomfield. Ex-officio members are the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Regional Transportation District. The authority is headquartered in Aurora.
| County | Location | Mile[2] | Destinations | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rowspan=7 | Douglas | Lone Tree | 0.000 | 1A | South end of E-470; continues west as SH 470 | |||
| rowspan=3 | Meridian | 1B | Jamaica Street | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||||
| 1.711 | 2 | Peoria Street – Centennial Airport | ||||||
| 2.700 | colspan=3 | Meridian Toll Plaza | ||||||
| rowspan=2 | Stonegate | 3.502 | 3 | Chambers Road | ||||
| 4.380 | 4 | Jordan Road | ||||||
| Parker | 5.180 | 5 | ||||||
| rowspan=8 | Arapahoe | rowspan=12 | Aurora | 8.887 | 9 | Gartrell Road | ||
| 10.683 | 10 | Smoky Hill Road | ||||||
| 13.352 | 13 | Quincy Avenue – Aurora | ||||||
| 16.150 | colspan=3 | South Aurora Toll Plaza | ||||||
| 16.451 | 16 | Jewell Avenue | ||||||
| 19.000 | 19 | 6th Parkway | ||||||
| 20.375 | Colfax Avenue | At-grade intersection | ||||||
| rowspan=2 | rowspan=2 | 20 | rowspan=2 | rowspan=2 | ||||
| rowspan=4 | Adams | |||||||
| 22.610 | colspan=3 | North Aurora Toll Plaza | ||||||
| 24.477 | 24 | 56th Avenue – Front Range Airport | ||||||
| 25.523 | 25 | 64th Avenue | ||||||
| colspan=2 | Denver | 27.849 | 28 | Peña Boulevard – Denver International Airport | Signed as exits 28A (east) and 28B (west) | |||
| rowspan=10 | Adams | rowspan=4 | Commerce City | 30.562 | 31 | 96th Avenue | ||
| 32.678 | 32 | 104th Avenue | ||||||
| 34.130 | 34 | 120th Avenue to I-76 west | ||||||
| rowspan=2 | 35.491 | rowspan=2 | 35 | rowspan=2 | rowspan=2 | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| rowspan=3 | Brighton | |||||||
| 38.465 | 38 | |||||||
| 40.220 | colspan=3 | Brighton Toll Plaza | ||||||
| 43.817 | 43 | Colorado Boulevard | ||||||
| 44.843 | 45 | York Street | ||||||
| rowspan=2 | Thornton | 46.398 46.950 | rowspan=2 | 47 | rowspan=2 | rowspan=2 | North end of E-470; continues west as Northwest Parkway |