DENVER — Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure says it has completed the installation of a controversial street project along Alameda Avenue that south Denver residents have told Denver7 jeopardizes safety.
In a news release Tuesday, DOTI officials said installation of the Alameda Lane Repurposing project was completed with major changes in place, including:
- Designated left-turn lanes
- New left-turn signals
- Pedestrian buffer between travel lane and sidewalk/amenity zone
- Spot safety treatments (access management)
- Flex post pedestrian refuge islands
- Updated school zone signage and markings
- New/refreshed marked crosswalks
- Protected bike lane approaches and green crossing markings
- Reduced speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph from Broadway to University
- Mid-block on-street parking
- Corridor signal retiming
- Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) + crosswalk + refuge island at Franklin and Alameda
- Pedestrian signal timing, high visibility signals, & bulb outs at Virginia & Downing
Watch Denver7's most recent reporting on the Alameda Lane Repurposing project in the video below:
The project moved forward despite opposition from some Wash Park residents, who told Denver7 last year they felt frustrated by the lack of community meetings to discuss a sudden change to the project, and the implication that wealthy and well-connected neighbors were being heard more than everyone else.
Denver’s DOTI started public outreach meetings to discuss changes to make the street safer in 2020. But after more community meetings and delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and construction at the Alameda underpass, DOTI seemed to settle on a design to move forward that involved reducing the four-lane road to two lanes with a dedicated center turn lane, along with some buffer space between the street and curb.
The “road diet” plan, however, was changed suddenly this fall.
DOTI introduced a new design that would keep two eastbound lanes and change one westbound lane to a series of “turn pockets” between Franklin and Pearl Streets.
The new design includes some elements of the original plan, like reducing the speed limit from 30 to 25 miles per hour, adding marked crosswalks, striped medians and pedestrian refuge islands.
But hundreds signed a petition led by Jill Anschutz, expressing concerns that reducing the lanes on Alameda would add more congestion and divert traffic onto neighborhood streets.
“We think that if you make congestion a lot worse, you frustrate drivers and you force them into these neighborhood streets that are narrow and are highly used by kids and pedestrians,” Anschutz told Denver7 in September of last year. “And that's what we mean by we think you're just going to create new safety issues rather than really completely resolving the concerns."
Denver7's Ryan Fish reported on concerns from neighbors and the response from city officials in the video below:
DOTI representatives — including executive director Amy Ford — presented their reasoning for the change in plans during a West Washington Park Neighborhood Association meeting last year, arguing the new design still addresses safety while not having as significant an impact on traffic congestion and diversion. DOTI representatives said that's one of the legitimate concerns held by many others in the community.
In a statement about a week later, DOTI officials said the approved redesign would be effective in reducing crashes “within the [Federal Highway Administration] estimates we can expect for road diets.”
“We believe the direction we are headed will also increase safety for pedestrians and people on bikes by continuing the crossing improvements we’ve planned, and by reducing the potential for eastbound vehicle congestion and diversion to the side streets south of Alameda where we are building out our bikeway network,” officials said, adding any assertions of lying or failing to consider crash data in the redesign for the project were “inaccurate.”
DOTI officials said they will let travel patterns normalize over the next few months before starting formal evaluation of the redesign which will take into account crash data, field observations that look at speed and volume, and a community survey “that aims to measure perception of safety as well as any unintended consequences.”
Officials said evaluation of the project’s success will look at three objectives: Ensuring everyone arrives safely to their destination, mitigating impacts to the neighborhood and businesses, and providing more comfortable mobility options for everyone.
They added that components of the evaluation will begin over the next few months, with formal data collection as well as the community survey taking place in the spring of 2027.
Evaluation will not occur during the summer months, as DOTI and the community “acknowledge schools greatly affect travel patterns,” officials said in their statement.
Denver7's Ryan Fish contributed to this report.
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