Interchange Rebuild Sends I-70 Drivers Off Colfax and Onto Piccadilly

The signs are gone from Interstate 70.

The Colorado Department of Transportation has pointed eastbound and westbound I-70 signage at Piccadilly Road instead of Colfax Avenue at the interchange east of Denver, removing the exit designations that once carried traffic off the interstate onto East Colfax. A reader in Lamar, James, wrote to ask why CDOT 'kill[ed] the Colfax exit signs from I-70 in favor of most lame Piccadilly Road,' noting that Colfax has been called Denver's main street and that drivers and GPS units are now searching for the route to it.

The change follows the construction of the Piccadilly interchange, which stands where the Colfax exit and entrance formerly met I-70. In earlier years, East Colfax ran to and from the interstate directly: traffic heading east transitioned right onto I-70, and a left side exit from westbound I-70 dropped drivers onto Colfax Avenue. That arrangement was part of why Colfax carried the I-70 business loop designation, a marker created to guide motorists through city centers that a new interstate had bypassed. CDOT told KMGH that the new interchange is the reason all I-70 signing now references Piccadilly Road, because that is the exit in place at the location. The Piccadilly configuration also handles traffic to developments north and south of the highway and connects southward to the Piccadilly and Colfax interchange.

Signs at the interchange belong to Aurora, not the state. The city maintains the new structure and would have to install any signage restoring Colfax references, and it does not plan to spend the money on new signs for an interchange that is named Piccadilly.

Drivers using mapping apps can still reach the avenue. KMGH's Jayson Luber tested Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze, and each directed him from I-70 to the Colfax and Piccadilly interchange. Luber has covered Denver metro traffic for more than 25 years.

Colfax Avenue is not being renamed. The exit that once carried its name has been rebuilt under a different one, and the signs followed the road that now sits there.