A proposed $1.8 billion rebuild of Interstate 70 through northeast Denver and Aurora will be the focus of three public hearings this week, giving proponents and opponents a chance to chew over the controversial plan.

The entire I-70 remake is laid out in a four-volume report, officially called the I-70 East Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement. This week’s hearings give community members and commuters a chance to comment on the plan in person or in writing, said Amy Ford, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.

“For the most part, we are looking for people to speak out and comment on the plan,” she said.

The hearings will be from 5-8 p.m. Tuesday in Aurora at Sable Elementary School (2601 Sable Blvd.); Wednesday in Commerce City at Kearney Middle School (6160 Kearney St.); and Thursday in Denver at Bruce Randolph Middle School ( 3955 Steele St.).

The comment period has been extended to Oct. 31, Ford said.

CDOT planners are advocating removing the deteriorating, 50-year-old viaduct on I-70 between Brighton Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard, lowering the highway below grade and adding two tolled express lanes in each direction.

Crews also would build an almost four-acre landscaped cover over the interstate by Swansea Elementary School.

CDOT says this alternative will reunite the Swansea and Elyria neighborhoods. The idea has also gathered support from various groups including the Denver Chamber of Commerce, National Western Stock Show, Union Pacific Railroad and the Elyria-Swansea Business Association, said CDOT executive director Don Hunt.

“We have spent a decade working with area residents, the business community and regional civic and economic development leaders” to produce this plan, Hunt said.

Critics, however, say sending the highway below grade will be an environmental disaster. Many of them want to move I-70 completely out of the northeast Denver area, saying that will spark economic development in the area.

Thad Tecza, a CDOT opponent, says this week’s hearings won’t truly offer alternatives to CDOT’s plan. “These hearings are a sham,” Tecza said.

The draft report lays the groundwork for the final environmental impact statement, which will be produced in 2015 and forwarded to federal highway officials.

They will review the document and, if approved, likely will give the go-ahead for the project by 2016, with construction starting then or in early 2017, Ford said.

Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/montewhaley