I-70 opponents ask court to halt project until lawsuits are decided

Opponents of the $1.2 billion expansion of Interstate 70 through northeast Denver have filed an expected request for a federal judge to order an immediate halt to the project.

The motion for an injunction, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver, is aimed at stopping the Colorado Department of Transportation and Kiewit Meridiam Partners from starting five years of construction in the spring.

If granted, an injunction would halt any work while two federal lawsuits are pending — one that challenges the link between the I-70 project and the city’s Platte to Park Hill stormwater drainage plan, and another lawsuit that contends the expanded highway would violate federal air-quality standards.

CDOT, which has intervened in the cases, is expected to object strongly to any injunction.

Injunction requests are standard in litigation over projects, and one consideration for the judge handling the lawsuits will be the likelihood they will succeed in the end.

The court has consolidated the case about the drainage plan’s link to I-70, filed in July by Denver developer Kyle Zeppelin and several other activists, with the airquality standards lawsuit. That one was filed the same day by the Sierra Club and several community groups.

Both lawsuits name the Federal Highway Administration, which green-lighted the I-70 project in January, as the defendant.