Primed with federal stimulus money, Denver expects construction on a new $50 million Central Park Boulevard/Interstate 70 interchange will start by the end of the year.
The Central Park interchange will offer the most direct link between the Stapleton residential and commercial area on the south side of I-70 and the Northfield shopping mall and other developing commercial areas on the north side of the highway.
About $12 million of the total is coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed earlier this year. Denver is getting $8 million more in other federal funds funneled through the Denver Regional Council of Governments. The city will use its own funds for the remaining $30 million.
“The stimulus funding really helped make it a reality and also will help build it all at once,” said Bill Vidal, Denver’s manager of public works.
Two agencies must give OK
Before stimulus money was directed at the project, the city considered building the interchange in phases as money became available, said Vidal, who also is Denver’s deputy mayor.
Final approvals still are needed from the Federal Highway Administration and Colorado Department of Transportation, but support for the project from both agencies is expected in the next month or so.
In June, Vidal’s office plans to solicit bids from companies for a “design-build” contract to construct the interchange, which will include a new bridge that will take Central Park Boulevard from Stapleton over I-70. Completion of the project is scheduled for 2013.
Construction of the interchange will have a “multiplier” effect, Vidal said, referring to the expectation that it will spur more development in the area.
“Not only do you get the jobs from a good-sized transportation project,” but also the spinoff of new retail, office and residential development once the two sides of I-70 are bridged, he said.
“Citizens of Aurora, Denver and Commerce City who created the (Stapleton) redevelopment plan envisioned one urban neighborhood integrated with seamless connections — not two parcels of land divided by an interstate,” said Tom Gleason, spokesman for Forest City Stapleton Inc., lead developer of the 4,700-acre former airport property.
“Construction of the new Central Park Boulevard interchange will ensure that Stapleton can reach its full build-out potential,” he said.
In addition to the $50 million that Denver will spend on the I-70/Central Park bridge and ramps, Forest City Stapleton will spend about $20 million tying the interchange in with the existing road network.
That money will be spent on a road linking the interchange’s north side with Northfield Boulevard, an extension of Central Park Boulevard from its current north terminus at East 35th Avenue to East 40th Avenue, and an extension of East 40th to link Central Park with Havana Street.
1,500-space station parking
Central Park Boulevard also will offer the most direct north-south access to Stapleton’s train station on RTD’s East Corridor commuter-rail line running between Union Station and Denver International Airport.
That station, and its 1,500-space parking area, will be located at Central Park and Smith Road.
Construction on the $1.3 billion DIA rail line is scheduled to begin in 2011, and airport train service is to start in 2015.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
