ARVADA, Colo. — After six months of construction and more than a decade of planning and permitting, the Arvada community is closer than ever to celebrating the completion of the Ralston Creek Trail Improvement Project.
We are highlighting this project in a series of stories Denver7 is doing this week about the community in Arvada, and what residents love and find challenging about living there. We will be live from Olde Town on Friday, July 25 during Arvada's Fourth Friday event.
- What is Denver7 | Your Voice? Read about the project here.
City officials in Arvada expect the Ralston Creek Trail to fully reopen by the end of July. This vital pathway is used for transportation, exercise, and recreation for many residents.
The need for improvement came in the wake of a devastating flood in 2013.
"The flood led the City of Arvada to begin an improvement plan, one that aimed to address safety issues for the people who recreate and live in the area and to mitigate future flooding damages to the trail,” said Sam Rogers, civil engineer and project manager for the City of Arvada.
The improvements focus on increasing safety and resilience to flooding, with modifications made to both infrastructure and natural surroundings.
“This is critical because we have residences and homes around this area, and we're also nestled right in between sections of the Westwoods golf course itself,” Rogers said.
A notable feature of the project is the new pedestrian bridge.
“The previous one was severely undersized and acted like a dam during flood conditions, catching trees and debris,” Rogers said. “We upsized it and brought a bigger pedestrian bridge out here to help convey flood flows through it, within the channel itself.”
In addition to the bridge, the trail’s layout has been changed to address a dangerous curve. “We sought to smooth out some of that trail alignment, open up some of the sight lines, just make it easier for people to see each other,” Rogers explained.
These changes enhance safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and other users of the trail.
Subtle but crucial improvements include natural restoration to the creek bed with the addition of structures known as "rock riffles." These are simply rocks lining the bottom of the creek bed that stabilize the creek and assist with flood management.
“These are things that you'll even see out in normal mountain streams, where it's essentially just rocks that are on the creek bed,” Rogers said.
He added that these changes allow the creek to adapt over time, increasing its ability to handle flooding.
The project faced delays primarily due to the permitting process, which, while time-consuming, is essential for ensuring environmental safety.
“Permits are there for a good reason, and all those regulations, there are a lot of environmental permits we had to go through to make sure that wildlife would not be adversely impacted.” Rogers said.
Poor weather conditions also contributed to construction delays.
Rogers said the City of Arvada was focused on the importance of being good stewards of the environment throughout this project.
“While public safety is usually No. 1 with a lot of our projects, in this case, wildlife safety was also right up there, almost tied with that,” he said.
With a construction budget of about $2 million, the project is a collaboration between the city and the Mile High Flood District, which served as a design and funding partner.
Arvada has other primary east-west trails in the city as well, including:
- Little Dry Creek Trail
- Van Bibber Creek Trail
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