State Highway 46 (SH 46) is a state highway in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, 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 wes ...

that connects Golden Gate Canyon State Park to State Highway 119 near Black Hawk.

Route description

SH 46 runs , starting at a junction with SH 119 northwest of Black Hawk. It runs east through Golden Gate Canyon State Park. At the Jefferson County line the state highway ends and the road continues east as Golden Gate Canyon Road (County Road 70) over Golden Gate Pass to SH 93 in northern

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History

SH 46 was formerly part of State Highway 58. As designated in 1912–1914, Primary Road No. 58 connected

Central City In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central city ...

and

, leaving Central City on Gregory Street (former SH 279) and following present SH 119 alongside North Clear Creek. It turned northeast on Smith Hill Road and then, as originally defined, along present Golden Gate Canyon Road (including about of modern SH 46) past Guy Hill. Some early maps, however, show the state highway following Crawford Gulch Road significantly north of Guy Hill.

Colorado Department of Transportation The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT, pronounced See Dot) is the principal department of the Colorado state government that administers state government transportation responsibilities in the state of Colorado. CDOT is responsible f ...

, official highway maps: August 1916, April 1922, 1952, 1954, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1985, 1986 By May 1923, the west end had been shifted north to SH 119 north of Central City and Black Hawk,1923 list of state highways, reproduced i
Highways to the Sky
Appendix C, p. 39 and at about the same time the Golden Gate Canyon Road alignment was permanently adopted.Colorado Highways
July 1923, map of state highways (SH 58 was also extended east from Golden to

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along what had been Primary Road No. 1, and the number remains to this day on a parallel freeway replacement.) As part of a 1953 reorganization that eliminated a large number of state highways, SH 58 was cut back to its modern Denver-to-Golden extent. Former SH 58 west of Golden Gate Canyon State Park was reacquired in 1972-1973 as a new State Highway 46 and paved in 1974. In 1985-1986 SH 46 was extended east to the county line along already-paved county road, and at the same time Jefferson County completed the paving of its section of Golden Gate Canyon Road.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML 046 Transportation in Gilpin County, Colorado Transportation in Jefferson County, Colorado