AURORA —Residents and business owners along Westerly Creek and Montview Boulevard can expect traffic snags and park and trail closures until next spring while construction continues to widen the creek, add a pedestrian bridge on Montview and elongate the regional Westerly Creek Trail.
The multi-faceted work in northwest Aurora serves several long-term goals. Among those is the removal of all properties upstream of Montview Boulevard from the 100-year flood plain, improving the overall aesthetic of the largely vacant commercial property in the area, fixing and renovating Westerly Creek and Montview Parks and creating a long-awaited pedestrian bridge at Montview Boulevard from the two parks.
“If you’re a (Sand Creek Regional Greenway) trail user and you get down this far, then ‘bang,’ you hit Montview with nowhere to go,” said Vern Adam, Aurora Water engineering services manager. “Now we’ll deliver those people into Montview Park, really be able to utilize the planned park renovation and the new pedestrian bridge.”
Aurora Water planners worked on the Lower Westerly Creek flood control improvement project for about 18 months before breaking ground in February. The approximately $9 million, jointly funded project is timed in conjunction with a , which will begin once the Montview bridge is complete, expected around December.
The entire Westerly Creek corridor improvements are supposed to be done next summer.
The construction that commuters see currently on Montview Boulevard between Clinton and Beeler Streets is for that grade-level and underground bridge. Construction crews with American Civil Constructors have westbound traffic on Montview diverted as they dig under the roadway to carve out the regional trail underpass, and the new pathway for about 2,700 feet of Westerly Creek.
Sporadic, complete closures of Montview do occur, and Aurora Water spokeswoman for capital improvement projects, Elizabeth Lefebvre, said her office puts up notices, e-mails and personally calls businesses in the area to warn them of those days.
Sometime in the middle of July, work on the south side of the bridge will begin, and eastbound traffic on Montview will be diverted. Lefebvre said Aurora Water suggests alternate routes away from this busy roadway through 2015.
All creek work is about 35 percent complete to date.
And once work starts into Montview Park this summer, portions of the park including the playground and existing bridge and trail connections will also be closed.
Some businesses in the area have been affected by the confusing diversions, but that neighborhood in western Original Aurora, which is right next to Stapleton, has been characterized by vacant storefronts and some dilapidated buildings for several years.
In fact, Adam said the city bought and demolished a former auto detail shop at 9305 Montview Blvd. to improve the aesthetics of the neighborhood during the projects.
“This area is going to change, and that’s what is truly needed here,” said Favor Samimi, owner of Extreme Towing & Recovery at 2201 Clinton St. “Development and improvement like this need to come in and help turn this area around. It’s a good project for the Aurora part of this neighborhood.”
A new pedestrian bridge, about 2,300 extra feet of regional trail (extended up to 17th Avenue), and a park renovation may not seem like a traditional neighborhood revival, but for the residents and business owners in the area, it could be.
“When we did our original public outreach, people were very receptive to the proposal — especially the neighbors in this area,” Lefebvre said. “They were happy that something was being done and that improvements to the area were (planned).”
Visually, the area will be more modern, more accessible, have much more wetland vegetation and provide the kind of connectivity between Denver and Aurora that has been planned for the area for years.
“We took a mangled mess of overhead electric and put it all underground, removed the eyesore gas station … and added other ancillary benefits in addition to our priority of flood mitigation,” Adam said.
