At a raucous meeting hosted Thursday by the Colorado Department of Transportation and hijacked by angry residents of the Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods in central Denver, the presence of three members of the Legislature made a splash.

There was state Speaker of the House Crisanta Duran in the front row mostly watching and listening to the angry residents, who are all her District 5 constituents. And there standing at the back were reliably outspoken members of the House chamber Reps. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, and Dan Pabon, D-Denver. They stood just watching, too, their lips sealed, their heads turning this way and that way as speakers made points and audience members shouted in response.

The lawmakers didn’t have to say anything. It was the fact that they came to the meeting that mattered to the protesters.

CDOT Director Shailen Bhatt hosted the event, intending to lay out next-step plans on the $1.2 billion “Central 70” interstate project, which is set to begin early next year. Construction on the heavily traversed and dilapidated ten-mile stretch of the interstate will slice through the Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods. Hard-pressed residents of those neighborhoods have lived in the shadow of the controversial highway viaduct since it was erected in the early 1960s. They don’t want their neighborhood dug up all over again and the highway expanded. They want it moved out from over their heads and away from the middle of city to a less-populated stretch of Adams County to the north.

But Bhatt wasn’t trying to hear that. The project this week received a green light from federal officials. Bhatt told the angry residents that the Central 70 project was moving forward.

Residents saw the state representatives as a lifeline. If Denver won’t halt the project, maybe Colorado will, they said.

“This is a state project, and they are the only ones who can help us now,” said protest organizer Candi CdeBaca, whose family has lived in the neighborhood for generations. “If they will not represent us, we will elect others who will.”

Many of the “Ditch the Ditch” protesters also know that lawmakers at the Capitol – and Duran in particular – are involved in complex negotiations at the Capitol over how to raise billions of dollars for statewide transportation upgrades. The deal lawmakers are approaching is centered on a referendum that would ask voters to approve tax increases to help back bond proposals. The protesters at the CDOT gathering said that, if Central 70 went forward, then they would dedicate themselves to torpedoing the referendum.

“We’re here to listen tonight. We have to figure out how to bring people together,” said Duran, when she was asked to speak. “I think it’s a shame I-70 was placed where it was. I know you’re angry, and I’m sorry.”

– john@coloradostatesman.com