E-470 to reduce toll rates in coming years as traffic numbers improve

AURORA | Aurora residents who regularly cruise the E-470 tollway can expect to have their pockets feel a little heavier in the coming years.

The roadway’s board of directors on Thursday agreed to lower the existing toll rates by a nickel at most plazas beginning at the beginning of next year, with additional 5-cent reductions expected in 2023 and 2024. Rates at one of the road’s busier plazas in Douglas County will drop by a dime in each of the coming three years.

That means that most passenger cars and trucks will pay between $4.20 and $4.60 per toll plaza starting Jan. 1, according to a statement from the board. Trucks with additional axels are required to pay double those amounts or more, depending on their size.

Most drivers who enroll in the tollway’s ExpressToll program will pay between $2.60 and $2.90 per plaza, with slight variability depending on the time of day.

The decreases come amid rebounding traffic numbers after volumes plummeted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring. The E-470 board previously froze toll rates due to pandemic fallout.

“While some toll agencies and other services and products around the U.S. had to raise rates amid the pandemic, our financial stability allows us to continue to provide savings and value to our customers,” E-470 board chairman and Adams County Commissioner Chaz Tedesco said in a statement. So, we can take the stress out of someone’s drive to the airport or help commercial shippers deliver items on time to serve the needs of our citizens in the region.”

Aurora’s Ward Vi City Councilperson Francoise Bergan is the current Aurora liaison to the board.

Forecasters predict that volumes on the roadway won’t fully return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023, though more than 62 million transitions on the asphalt ribbon have been reported so far in 2021, according to a spokesperson.

Local officials have repeatedly pointed to E-470 as a lynchpin in Aurora’s eastern expansion, saying that the roadway could help transform the eastern portion of the metro area into a so-called inland port capable of shipping myriad supplies via freight, rail and air.