State Highway 88 (SH 88) is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

Arapahoe The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho band ...

counties within the

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Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. SH 88's northern terminus is at Interstate 70 Business (I-70 Bus.), U.S. Route 40 (US 40) and

US 287 U.S. Route 287 (US 287) is a north–south (physically northwest–southeast) United States highway. At long, it is the second longest three-digit U.S. Route, behind US 281. It serves as the major truck route between Fort Worth and Am ...

, and the eastern terminus is at SH 83 in

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

Route description

SH 88 is a 21.7 mile (34.9 km) long highway, starting at a cloverleaf intersection at

Colfax Avenue Colfax Avenue is the main street that runs east–west through the Denver metropolitan area in Colorado. As U.S. Highway 40, it was one of two principal highways serving Denver before the Interstate Highway System was constructed. In the local ...

( U.S. Route 40) and Federal Boulevard in Denver. It starts as a six lane highway going south with a 35 mph speed limit. It then interchanges with the 6th Avenue Freeway (

US 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to ...

) before passing through the west Denver neighborhoods. Continuing south, it interchanges at US 285's final exit as a freeway entering

Sheridan Sheridan may refer to: People Surname *Sheridan (surname) *Philip Sheridan (1831–1888), U.S. Army general after whom the Sheridan tank is named *Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), Irish playwright (''The Rivals''), poet and politician ...

. It then turns east on Belleview with three lanes in each direction and a 40 mph speed limit. It passes under

US 85 U.S. Route 85 (US 85) is a north–south United States Highway that travels in the Mountain and Northern Plains states of the United States. The southern terminus of the highway is at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, connecting wi ...

and goes through another neighborhood with two lanes in each direction approaching

Greenwood Village The City of Greenwood Village is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 15,691 at the 2020 United States Census. Greenwood Village is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Met ...

. The route enters the

Denver Tech Center Denver Technological Center, better known as The Denver Tech Center or DTC, is a business and economic trading center located in Colorado in the southeastern portion of the Denver Metropolitan Area, within portions of the cities of Denver and Green ...

and becomes concurrent with

Interstate 25 Interstate 25 (I-25) is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway, serving as the main route through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. I-25 stretches from I-10 at Las Cruces, New Mexic ...

from exit 199 to exit 197 at Arapahoe Road. SH-88 continues east with a 40 mph speed limit on Arapahoe Road with three lanes in each direction passing through

Centennial {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at a ...

and north of

Centennial Airport Centennial Airport is a public use airport owned by the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area, 15 nautical miles (17 mi, 28 km) southeast of downtown Denver, Colorado, United States. Loc ...

with a 55 mph speed limit until it reaches its eastern terminus at Parker Road ( State Highway 83) in Foxfield.

History

SH 88 was an original 1920's highway that originally ran along Belleview from Broadway to Parker Road in Greenwood Village. In 1939, it was extended east along Quincy Avenue into the now defunct Lowry Field Bombing Range until 1954. The western extension to Santa Fe (US 85) was completed by 1956.

Cherry creek reservoir construction

Construction of the dam didn't start until 1948. Before that, there was an old wooden bridge that passed over cherry creek until it was destroyed in a fire in which the state abandoned the road. However, state maps still showed the section of Belleview by 1958.

Present day

In 1959, the section along Arapahoe road was added, originally as a gravel road and it wasn't paved until 1961. The section of Federal Blvd in Sheridan was originally signed as SH 75 and was renumbered to SH 88 in 1968. Arapahoe Road didn't become an expressway until it was built east to Peoria Street in 1977 and the final stretch to SH 83 (Parker Rd.) wasn't finished until 1990. The intersection of Arapahoe Road and Parker Road used to have a triple left going from eastbound to northbound and was one of the most congested intersections in the Denver Metro Area. It was later upgraded to an interchange where Parker Road now continues north without stopping. The interchange was completed in 2012.

Major intersections

References

External links

* {{Attached KML, display=inline, title 088 Transportation in Denver Transportation in Arapahoe County, Colorado Englewood, Colorado Greenwood Village, Colorado Transportation in Aurora, Colorado