South end: US 285 in Denver Length 38.74 km | North end: SH 7 in Brighton | |
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Counties Denver, Arapahoe County, Colorado, Adams County, Colorado | ||
State Highway 2 (SH 2) is a state highway of the U.S. state of Colorado. It runs for approximately 24 miles (39 km) north–south entirely within the urbanized environment of the Denver Metropolitan Area. It is one of the major north–south thoroughfares of east Denver, where it is known as Colorado Boulevard.
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Route description
On its southern end, it begins at U.S. Highway 285 in Cherry Hills Village in Arapahoe County just south of the Denver city limits. It goes north through Denver, intersecting Interstate 25 at exit 204 . It intersects State Highway 83 near Cherry Creek and U.S. Highway 40/287 (Colfax Avenue) east of downtown Denver. It passes along the east side of Denver City Park. It intersects Interstate 70 at exit 276, then merges with U.S. Highway 6/85 through Commerce City until it branches off to the northeast, passing along the northwest boundary of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. It terminates at its northern end at Interstate 76 at exit 15 on the south edge of Brighton.
History
The route was established in the 1920s beginning at U.S. Highway 40 at the Utah border. It then followed US 40 all the way to Denver, where it followed Colfax Avenue through Denver. It then followed various streets northeast along U.S. Highway 85 north to Greeley, where it turned abruptly eastward along U.S. Highway 34 to U.S. Highway 6, where it continued to Sterling and finally along U.S. Highway 138 to the Nebraska border. By 1946, the route was rerouted in an Area northeast of Denver. It was then changed in 1950 so it followed Colfax Avenue east through Dever. The route was rerouted in 1968 from US 285 to I-80S (now deleted). The now-deleted portion along Quebec Street was changed in 1971, and the route was finally corrected to its current routing in 1998.