Report: Benefits in the Billions for a New Highway Through the Denver Suburbs

A new report predicts an economic windfall if the proposed Jefferson Parkway is completed to connect quickly growing suburban areas to the West of Denver.

"A newly released report says that completing the embattled 10-mile Jefferson Parkway would give a $1.2 billion jolt to Jefferson County over a 20-year period, a nearly 17 percent premium over what the area would receive without the highway," reports John Aguilar.

According to the report, "the proposed road would boost the amount of office and retail space in the parkway corridor from 2018 to 2037 to 7.6 million square feet from a projected 6.5 million square feet should the highway not be built."

Littleton-based Development Research Partners shared the study with county of Jefferson officials earlier in October. Supporters of the highway plan say the current road is unsafe and inadequate for the growing population in Jefferson County. Critics of the plan say the highway project would disturb plutonium potentially buried in the ground—a legacy of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant that closed in 1992.