The Start of the Denver-Boulder Turnpike
For Wyatt Ryder (PolSci’18), the drive into Boulder never gets old. As westbound U.S. Highway 36 crests Davidson Mesa and the city unfurls below, he can think of only one way to describe the view: “It’s like heaven on Earth.”
Ryder is one of hundreds of thousands of CU Boulder students and alumni who have been captivated by that same lookout — one that opened up to generations of motorists with the debut of the Denver-Boulder Turnpike more than 70 years ago.
The turnpike officially opened to traffic on Jan. 21, 1952. But its story began years earlier, in the 1920s, when CU Boulder engineering professor Roderick L. Downing (CivEngr1914) began envisioning a faster route between Denver and Boulder.
For decades, motorists traveling between the two cities had to zigzag their way through a grid of north-south and east-west roads. But Downing, who became known as “The Father of the Turnpike,” knew there must be a better way. He presented the problem to his engineering students, who mapped out a diagonal route that would connect the two cities more directly. Year after year, Buffs refined the plans while Downing lobbied to turn the idea into a reality.
The Colorado Legislature authorized the turnpike in 1949, funding the $6.3 million project through a 30-year bond issue. Construction began the following year on the two-lane concrete roadways separated by a 20-foot median.
The result was a 17.3-mile toll road — the second of its kind in the state — that cut nearly eight miles and 35 minutes off the drive between the two fast-growing cities. Officials predicted that between 2,580 and 3,170 cars would make the drive each day, each paying a 25-cent toll. But the turnpike proved far more popular than they imagined: By 1966, the daily average reached 13,774 vehicles. The route’s unexpected success allowed the bonds to be repaid ahead of schedule, and the road officially went toll-free on Sept. 14, 1967.
“Toll or toll-free, the route is one of the most scenic short drives in Colorado,” wrote Susan Marsh for The New York Times in October 1967. “On the western side, there is farmland reaching to the mountains; on the eastern side, farmland reaching to more farmland. The view from a high hill into Boulder is breathtaking.”
Photos courtesy of Glenn Asakawa (Jour’86); Floyd Walters/CU Heritage Center