Editor's report

摘要

Mountain America is unusual in that none of its major metropolitan areas have completed beltways surrounding them. There are partial perimeter freeways, to be sure, and three of the cities - Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver - have made considerable progress on true beltways. And Salt Lake City has segments of what might be called a beltway. Denver gained a measure of fame back in 1975 when then-Gov. Richard Lamm fulfilled a campaign promise to "drive a silver stake through the heart of 1-470," the planned metropolitan beltway, and had the project withdrawn from the federal Interstate Highway System. Within a few years, the state would end up paying a great deal higher price when, without the degree of assistance it would have received as an interstate, the first link of the beltway - the southwest quadrant - was completed by the state in the 1980s as C-470.