Colorado built a park over I-70 to contain pollution. Is the air safe to breathe? – Building Energy Smart Technologies (BEST)

From CPR News:

“Asthma is a fact of life for Yadira Sanchez.

The longtime north Denver resident shares the condition with her three children. The chronic ailment means the family starts every morning with nasal rinses and puffs from inhalers. It’s why sports and sledding were never an option when her kids were younger. And it’s the reason she now refuses to visit a new four-acre park just blocks from her home.

The gleaming greenspace is outfitted with playgrounds, a splash pad, a soccer field and an amphitheater. Sanchez thinks it’s an attractive addition to the neighborhood, but she hasn’t visited because it straddles Interstate 70, Colorado’s main east-west traffic artery.

The highway-spanning project, known as a “cap,” opened in late 2022 as the final piece of a $1.2 billion project to nearly triple the width of the thoroughfare through Elyria-Swansea — a neighborhood with some of Denver’s highest asthma rates. One reason planners added the cover was to dampen noise and pollution from the freeway below.”