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CDOTI-270 Corridor Improvements
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CDOT · Transportation

I-270 Corridor Improvements

Rebuild of I-270 between I-25 and I-70, mile points 1 to 5: one tolled Express Lane each way beside two general-purpose lanes, 12 aging bridges replaced and the Vasquez Boulevard interchange rebuilt (Adams and Denver counties). Timeline Oct 2026–2033.

Money in FACT
Construction cost
$806M
Result so far
Underway. What this stage means

Underway. The main work on this project started. Money goes out as the work goes on.

The stages, in order

  1. Requested An agency asked. No money yet.
  2. Funded Money approved. Work still to start.
  3. Underway Work started. Money goes out. This project
  4. Complete Work complete.

Halted Work stopped before the end.

This stage is our reading of the sources at the foot of this page, last read 20 October 2026.

Timeline Oct 2026–2033

Paid so far FACT
$11.97M, through July 2026

CDOT’s dashboard prints this for one contract, not for the whole project. Printed: $11.97M. Who is being paid

FACT A Honesty Framework The label says how we know the figure. The grade rates the source record, not the project. The grade rates the source record, not the project.

Your take on this project

How well does this project use public money?
Your rating and comment help show which projects residents see as a good use of public money, and which as a poor one.

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Your rating is stored without your name, address or any identifier. We count it into a total, so the people who govern this place can see how residents read their spending. No rating and no total is published on this site. We may publish summaries of what residents tell us about a place. Those are our own writing, never your rating and never a count, average or distribution of anybody's. Ratings and comments are grouped into themes that show elected leaders how residents rate each project.

Latest public update

Construction is under way. CDOT's project page, read on 20 October 2026, prints a Construction Cost of $806 million and a timeline of October 2026 to 2033. The combined Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision was signed on 20 August 2026. The project replaces 12 bridges built in the 1960s and adds one tolled Express Lane each way beside two general-purpose lanes. CDOT has published no release dating the start of construction, so this site gives none. The Record of Decision lists three phase costs as of April 2026, $307 million, $402 million and $97 million, and says they cover environmental review, design, construction and past bridge repair. Those three add to $806 million ($307M + $402M + $97M), the figure the project page calls a construction cost. Before the decision, the figures in public were estimates of the whole project's cost: $800 million in the regional transportation plan of May 2024, as the Record of Decision records it, and $725 million in coverage of the November 2025 Draft EIS. They were made on a different basis from the $806 million, so this site computes no change between them. CDOT's newest Critical Bridges dashboard is still the July 2026 edition: $11.97M paid to date and $9.86M remaining on a current contract value of $21.83M, for one pre-construction contract inside the project. This site does not add it to the $806 million.

Related project: Vasquez Boulevard Improvements: I-270 to 64th Avenue. A separate CDOT project on Vasquez Boulevard, from I-270 to 64th Avenue in Commerce City. This project rebuilds the Vasquez Boulevard/I-270 interchange in Phase 2 and the Vasquez Boulevard bridge over Sand Creek in Phase 3. Each project's figures are its own, and this site does not add them together.

Open questions for the state (3)
ANALYSIS
  • CDOT's project page calls the $806 million a construction cost. Its Record of Decision says the same phase costs cover environmental review, design and past bridge repair too. Which is it?
  • How will Phases 2 and 3 be paid for, and what share will Express Lane tolls carry?
  • When will CDOT publish a monthly dashboard for the Phase 1 construction contract?

Total cost and spending
Construction cost$806M

The publisher prints this as a construction cost, not as the whole project’s cost, and prints no project total. It is drawn from the official record(s) listed below.

Paid to the contractor: $11.97M of $21.83M on the one contract CDOT publishes a dashboard for. FACT CDOT’s monthly dashboard prints what has been paid to that contract’s contractor to date, and the contract’s current value. Both are CDOT’s printed figures, not ours. They are payments on that one contract, not the project’s whole spend: anything paid outside it is in neither figure, and nobody publishes that. CDOT’s latest published dashboard: July 2026.

Milestones (6)
  • Corridor study & alternatives analysis — 2021–24
  • Draft Environmental Impact Statement published — November 2025
  • Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision approved — August 2026
  • Phase 1 under way: embankment, eight of the 12 bridges, and the mainline from the South Platte River to the Vasquez Boulevard ramps — October 2026 to early 2030
  • Phase 2: the rest of the mainline, the Vasquez Boulevard/I-270 interchange, and the York Street and 56th Avenue bridges — early 2030 to 2033
  • Phase 3: the Vasquez Boulevard bridge over Sand Creek, Sandcreek Drive/Frontage Road, and a new bike and pedestrian overpass — early 2030 to 2033

Who is being paid (4)
FACT
Funding sourcePhase 1 is fully funded by state legislative allocations and the Bridge & Tunnel Enterprise, CDOT's Record of Decision says. Later phases rely on state and federal sources, with the Colorado Transportation Investment Office supporting the Express Lanes.
Political giving
AtkinsRéalisLead NEPA/EIS consultant & design engineering services—PENDING Not published for this contract.ADEIS List of PreparersSearch TRACER
Felsburg Holt & UllevigEIS subconsultant (listed preparer)—PENDING Not published for this contract.ADEIS List of PreparersSearch TRACER
Kiewit Infrastructure Co.Critical Bridges pre-construction contract (project 24947/24527)$21.83M contractACDOT CM award recommendation memo (Mar 2023)Search TRACER
Kiewit CorporationConstruction contractor named on CDOT's project page—PENDING Not published for this contract.ACDOT project pageSearch TRACER
Where this comes from: award announcements and project records from CDOT, FHWA, agencies and the legislature’s nonpartisan staff — each Record link opens the source. Paid-to-date shows only published figures (green = verified); everything else stays PENDING, because the state does not publish payments project by project. Political giving links open TRACER, the Secretary of State’s official campaign-finance database, where contribution records are searchable by name — contributions are legal and public, and a search link implies no wrongdoing by anyone.

Pacing CALC

Is the money keeping pace with the calendar?

I-270 Critical Bridges, pre-construction contract, July 2026

▼ −30.3 percentage points, paid behind the calendar

An even pace is our baseline, not CDOT's plan. A gap is a question to ask, not a verdict, and it compares money with time, not with the work done.

See the spending in detail

Money paid against contract time used, from CDOT's monthly dashboards for July 2026, the latest in the record.

  • I-270 Critical Bridges, pre-construction contract Paid 54.8% of the contract with 85.1% of its time used: 30.3 percentage points behind an even pace, $6.61M less.

Figures in CDOT’s dashboards that do not add up

These are CDOT’s own figures, shown exactly as CDOT printed them, and we do not say which one is right.

  • Change orders do not add up CALC

    I-270 Critical Bridges, July 2026

    CDOT’s dashboard for this month prints:

    • Initial Pre-Construction Contract's Value: $10.51 Million
    • Total Change Orders to Date: $10.51 Million
    • Current Contract's Value: $21.83 Million

    Those two add up to $21.02M. That is $0.81M less than the current value.

    $10.51M + $10.51M = $21.02M; $21.83M − $21.02M = $0.81M

    CDOT’s dashboard, July 2026 (PDF) (opens in a new tab) · read 26 September 2026

None of these figures is used in a total, a chart or the pacing view on this site.

Sources and receipts (5)

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I-270 Corridor Improvements

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