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State Highway 470 (C-470, SH 470) is a state highway located in the southwestern portion of the Denver Metro Area. It is also the southwestern portion of the Denver Metro area's beltway. SH 470 begins at US 6 in Golden and heads south interchanging Interstate 70 and then US 285 outside Morrison. After leaving Morrison, it then heads east passing by Littleton and through Highlands Ranch before interchanging Interstate 25 in Lone Tree, where the freeway continues as a tollway and where the state highway designation ends. The highway was originally planned to be a full continuous beltway around Denver and was also proposed to be in the Interstate Highway System and designated as Interstate 470 (I-470) in the 1960s. However, the beltway project was attacked on environmental impact grounds and the interstate beltway was never built. Alternatives to provide faster and easier access to and from Denver for the southwestern suburbs were discussed after plans for a full beltway ceased. As the southwestern suburbs grew in population, a grand parkway known as the Centennial Parkway was proposed and then was later designated as SH 470 after the road was built to freeway standards. SH 470 is owned and maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), an agency responsible for building and maintaining state highways, US highways, and Interstate highways across the state of Colorado.
