AURORA | For the sixth straight year, traffic along the E-470 toll road climbed last year, this year growing 12 percent compared to 2014.
And with that steady growth, the toll road that winds along metro area’s eastern edge is also aiming to add lanes through Aurora.
The toll road is planning on spending about $80 million — all of it from toll revenues and the highway authority’s reserves — to add a third lane to the stretch of road from East Quincy Avenue to Parker Road.
Construction on that eight-mile stretch through southeast Aurora should start this spring and wrap up by the end of 2017, said Dan Christopherson, a spokesman for E-470.
According to the highway authority, crews will work on the project in two-mile segments, starting at Parker Road on the south end and working their way to Quincy.
Two lanes of traffic in each direction will stay open during weekday morning and evening rush hours, and 11 bridges will be widened to accommodate the new lanes.
As for the road’s traffic growth — which officials say makes the widening necessary — Stan Koniz, E-470’s finance director, said the 15-percent growth in toll revenues met the authority’s financial obligations, including $91.1 million of debt service payments in 2015 to bondholders.
“Not only does the increase in toll revenues ensure we can meet our debt obligation to bondholders, it also provides E-470 with the reserves needed to reinvest in our road to make sure it meets the expectations of our customers,” he said in a statement.
Overall, traffic on the toll road last year was 12.4 percent above 2014, with transactions rising from 66.4 million to 74.6 million.
The authority had projected about 70 million transactions, but eclipsed that figure by close to 4 million.
The road also broke its all-time single-day traffic record in 2015 with 284,690 transactions Dec. 18. The prior record was 250,165 transactions Dec. 19, 2014.
There were 55 separate days in 2015 that surpassed the 2014 high.
The rise in traffic, coupled with a 2015 toll increase, meant a 15-percent spike in net revenue.