Ten projects about to reap gains of passed measures
Denver’s massive, $937 million bond package proved exceptionally popular with Denver voters last week. All seven components cleared two-thirds support among the nearly 143,000 voters who turned out, with the transportation package exceeding 75 percent.
But when will the roughly 460 projects, from small repaving plans to big new buildings, get started?
A celebratory Mayor Michael Hancock said last week that his administration was putting in motion a decade of construction that will touch many parts of the city. First up is a forthcoming request for bids from consultants for a project management contract.
By spring, the city could sell the first batch of bonds, just as officials are figuring out which projects are ready to go in the first round.
There’s a lot in the package, starting with simple stats: 287 miles of road repaving, 33 miles of sidewalks and 49 miles of bikeways, plus renovations at dozens of city libraries, recreation centers, police and fire stations, and some big cultural facilities.
Here are 10 pieces of the package that show its sweep and have the potential to stand out as signature projects. They account for one-third of the bond package’s overall value:
Pedestrian bridges in Elyria-Swansea and Overland
Amount: $22.4 million
Details: Two pedestrian/bike bridges are on tap. One (costing $13 million) will span busy Santa Fe Drive and freight and light-rail tracks in south Denver, between the Evans Station and the South Platte River, making it safer to cross while improving several neighborhoods’ access to transit. The other, targeted for $9.4 million, on top of $2.5 million already secured by the city, takes aim at a long-standing safety issue: an at-grade railroad crossing near East 47th Avenue and York Street, just blocks from Swansea Elementary, that is unavoidable for some children on their walk to and from school.
Impact: School and community leaders in Elyria-Swansea say trains that idle on the tracks in that area can make children late for school or, worse, spur them to climb over the tracks between train cars. For years, they have asked city officials for help.
Transit and street makeovers on Colfax Avenue
Amount: $76.9 million
Details: The bonds won’t fully pay for Denver’s ambitious bus rapid-transit project, which could dedicate the
center lanes to more frequent buses that stop at passenger islands. But $55 million, by covering a third or more of the cost, will kickstart the project. That comes on top of nearly $22 million for touches such as medians, trees, lighting and safer pedestrian crossings, along with improved transit access, in key areas from Sheridan Boulevard to Monaco Parkway.
Impact: “The money for Bus Rapid Transit is a game-changer. And the Colfax improvements will help make the street safer while also making it function as Denver’s original main street should.” — Frank Locantore, president of Colfax Ave Business Improvement District.
residents flooded early bond meetings to press for this project as a sorely needed amenity in a low-income neighborhood long underserved by city leaders.
Impact: “There are no (major) parks and no recreation centers here. It will motivate the community to start working out more and prevent diseases like diabetes. The youth will have a safe place to go, and it will reduce gang activity — and help kids stay away from electronic devices.” — Norma Brambila, a Westwood community advocate and mother of five. northeast Denver, near the airport, have grown fast. With a “smart city” taking shape around Panasonic Enterprise Solutions’ campus on East 61st Avenue and a concentration of off-airport hotels — outside the quick-response range of nearby fire stations — the city will build a new station at Tower Road and East 72nd Avenue.
Impact: “The fire station at 72nd and Tower will address safety issues that we’ve experienced because of the growth of Green Valley Ranch and the amount of hotels and tourism we have along the Tower corridor.” — Stacie Gilmore, District 11 city councilwoman. “Re-imagine Play” plan is already unfolding at Paco Sanchez Park, along the Lakewood Gulch Trail. The bond will pay for the final stage of the project, which is bringing “play pods” with new types of playgrounds, a community plaza, a stage and music bowl, restrooms and a fitness loop.
Impact: “There’s a lot of transient activity, but now — with the light rail nearby and the building that’s going on — we have to have places for the children to go play. And the park is generational. It will serve anyone from a year old to 99 years.” — Jo Ann Phillips, president of the Villa Park Neighborhood Association. advocates consider this project comprehensive. It will install protected bike lanes and safer crossings along a busy stretch of Buchtel Boulevard between Colorado and University boulevards, along with intersection improvements on those two major streets. It also includes better connections to a newer ped/bike bridge over Interstate 25 near the Colorado light-rail station.
Impact: “It’s exciting to know that the city, through the bond, will be able to make projects like this a reality. We are in an area with some really dramatic growth because of high-density living going in near us.” — Debbie Harrington, president of the University Park Community Council. the bond package is a contribution toward about half the cost of Denver Health and Hospital Authority’s new Outpatient Medical Center, previously called the Ambulatory Care Center, which will centralize many of its clinics in a new building.
Impact: “The OMC will allow us to nearly double our ability to care for patients by expanding critical areas such as cardiology, Avenue, sandwiched by the Rocky Mountain Arsenal wildlife refuge and Montbello, can’t handle traffic from the suburban growth to the east. This project’s logistics are still being worked out and spur some concerns from neighbors, but the basics call for two more lanes across a new median between Peoria Street and Peña Boulevard, plus completion of a multiuse trail.
Impact: “The population density is increasing at an exponential level now — there’s so much traffic that you’d think you’re in the city instead of the suburbs. The project is going to be a huge impact.” — Emmett Hobley Jr., president of the Montbello Neighborhood Improvement Association.