Colorado’s capital city, Denver, has recently undertaken an initiative to construct a major highway which will result in the tearing down of about 60 murals at its local street. As per reliable sources, the four-year long Central 70 Project is expected to revitalize and rebuild about 10 miles of the old infrastructure on Interstate 70 (I-70) between Brighton Boulevard and Chambers Road.
As per Rebecca White, a spokeswomen of The Colorado Department of Transport (CDOT), one of the key aspects of the renovation is removing the bridge where I-70 runs on top of the 46th Avenue and replacing it with a stretch of highway that will run 30 feet underground.
Reportedly, a small stretch of the 46th Avenue will be closed for rebuilding the highway for ensuring safety of people in the neighborhood.
For the record, in 2016, Denver’s Urban Arts Fund contracted about twenty local artists to paint nearly 60 murals on the bridge’s concrete walls. The goal was to brighten up the dingy and dark street and make it a much clean, safe and welcoming environment for passersby. However, post the commencement of construction of the highway project, the colorful murals will be reduced to rubble.
White has been reported to say that all the viaduct walls and pillars will be removed for the project, and the artists knew their work will be temporary. It is pretty common for urban art to last a few years until it moves on, she added.
When the portion of the Central 70 Project will be completed in about four years, there won’t be a concrete canvas to restore, as ground level park will be built over the newly buried lanes of I-70, which will be good news for the neighborhood as the dark structures would be replaced with four acres of green space, White added.