Federico Peña Boulevard, named for former

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Mayor

Federico Peña Federico Fabian Peña (born March 15, 1947) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 12th United States secretary of transportation from 1993 to 1997 and the 8th United States secretary of energy from 1997 to 1998, during the pres ...

, is an

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

located in Adams County and the City and County of Denver,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The freeway, which opened in 1993, provides the primary vehicular access into

Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , often referred to by locals as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At , Effective Ju ...

which opened at the same time. Peña Boulevard begins as an extension of Airport Boulevard in

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

at an interchange with

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...

(I-70) and travels north, then east to end at the airport, with an intermediate interchange with the

E-470 E-470 is a controlled-access toll road that traverses the eastern portion of the Denver metropolitan area in the US state of Colorado. It is the eastern half of the 470 beltway that serves Meridian, Parker, Aurora, Denver International Ai ...

tollway A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and mainten ...

Route description

Peña Boulevard begins at an

interchange Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...

with I-70 in Aurora as a northern continuation of Airport Boulevard. The first freeway interchange is at East 40th Avenue, which also provides traffic access to and from to Aurora's Airport Boulevard running to the south. Travelers leaving the airport use this exit for access to eastbound I-70 through the adjacent Airport Boulevard/I-70 interchange. Travelers inbound to the airport from I-70 East do not have access to the first interchange. Continuing north, the freeway leaves Aurora and passes into the Denver Gateway area, Aurora's Gateway Park development is adjacent. An interchange with Green Valley Ranch Boulevard provides access to the neighborhood of the same name. The East 56th Avenue interchange is the final exit along Peña Boulevard before it turns east near the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, and reaches the interchange with Tower Road, which serves several airport hotels. The only intermediate freeway interchange on Peña Boulevard is a full

cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange (road), interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passe ...

with the tolled

, which provides an alternate north–south route to

I-25 Interstate 25 (I-25), also known as the Pan-American Freeway, 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 st ...

for travelers wishing to bypass on the eastern side of Metropolitan Denver area. E-470 also intersects I-70 and has a higher speed limit than Peña Boulevard. The interchange with E-470 is the easternmost exit before entering Denver International Airport. Once inside airport grounds, the freeway intersects the car rental return area, and connects to the parking garages and terminal access roads. Cyclists are allowed to use the shoulder of the freeway. The segment of the freeway between I-70 and E-470 is listed on the National Highway System (NHS), a system of roads that are important to the nation's economy, defense and mobility. The portion between E-470 and the airport is listed as a

MAP-21 The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) is a funding and authorization bill to govern United States federal surface transportation spending. It was passed by Congress on June 29, 2012, and President Barack Obama signed it ...

NHS Principal Arterial.

History

Construction of the $18 million (equivalent to $ in ) freeway, which opened in 1995, was halted for six weeks during summer 1992 due to a family of

burrowing owl The burrowing owl (''Athene cunicularia''), also called the shoco, is a small, long-legged, primarily terrestrial—though not flightless—species of owl native to the open landscapes of North and South America. They are typically found in gra ...

s living in the right-of-way near the

at 56th Avenue. Ten thousand people were employed during the construction of the airport and the connecting freeway. A bike path was planned to parallel the freeway but never built; instead, in 2000, striping and signage were updated to allow cyclists to use the shoulder. Originally, the toll booths that served the parking lots were located from the entrance to the airport causing delays for persons just dropping off people at the airport. The toll booth was removed in 2000, and new booths were installed at the exits of the airport parking garages. Peña Boulevard was named for

because he was very influential in bringing about the construction of

. In October 2018, a missing ramp at Tower Road and Peña Boulevard was finally added and opened to the public in October 2018, completing the interchange.

Future

The Denver City Council has approved an expansion of the freeway; the project will add lanes, modify interchanges, add new signage, and modify many areas along the route at a cost of $93 million. The Jackson Gap interchange will become a

Diverging diamond interchange A diverging diamond interchange (DDI), also called a double crossover diamond interchange (DCD), is a subset of diamond interchange in which the opposing directions of travel on the non-freeway road cross each other on either side of the inte ...

, with a

Texas U-turn A Texas U-turn, or Texas turnaround, boomerang, or loop around, is a lane allowing cars traveling on one side of a one-way frontage road to U-turn onto the opposite frontage road (typically crossing over or under a freeway or expressway). Typica ...

style ramp between the westbound Peña off-ramp and eastbound Peña onramp for traffic to return to the terminal. The project, which was originally expected to begin in January 2020, and expected to last around two-and-a-half years, has not been completed, and is now expected to end in January 2026.

Exit list

References

External links