Rendering shows a corner of South Broadway, currently under construction and funded in part by the Hickenlooper's 2007 Better Denver Bond Program.

John Hickenlooper

When John Hickenlooper hits the road to campaign for the governor’s office, the Denver mayor will get an up-close look at the maintenance and improvement needs of the state’s transportation network – and is likely to get an earful about what he should do to address its transportation funding crisis.

But Hickenlooper’s drive straight into the Colorado governor’s race will also have advocates of sustainable transportation infrastructure investments looking over his record for signs of what he might do to work on the crisis.

While the Denver mayor is famously known for his all-out support of the metro-wide rapid transit expansion FasTracks by the Regional Transportation District, his administration is moving more bricks and mortar in Denver at the moment through the 2007 Better Denver Bond Program.

Combined with a separate mill levy increase for maintenance catch-up – an urgent need at the state level for highways and bridges, but lacking the same recourse to property taxes – the Better Denver program was a collection of eight bond issue questions for capital improvements totaling over $500 million to parks, safety facilities, cultural facilities, libraries, streets and others. All passed.

The single largest bond question was for streets, transportation and public works at $149.8 million, 30 percent of the total.

Many of the high-profile projects promised when Denver voters approved 1D in November 2007 are underway, perhaps none more visible than the reconstruction of South Broadway in concrete, with planned landscaped medians and other improvements. The entire job is valued at $34.4 million, funded in part through the Better Denver Bond Program and federal transportation grants. This conjoining of funding sources is typical for getting large projects off the shelf and onto the ground.

The new layout of the block of South Broadway between Arkansas and Louisiana Avenue includes a raised and landscaped median and sidewalk trees.

The first segment from Arizona to Iowa Avenue is to be done this year, with the second segment from Yale to Wesley Avenue to start later this year. The center segment from Wesley to Iowa will be done in 2011.

When completed, the entire stretch of Broadway from the Englewood line to Fifth Avenue will be concrete except for the stretch through the Interstate 25 interchange between Ohio Avenue and Arizona. Plans for that small segment are still in flux as the city and the Colorado Department of Transportation work on reconfiguring the whole Lincoln-Broadway access to I-25.

Cross-section shows typical layout for South Broadway's sidewalks, parking lanes, travel lanes and median.

The improvements under construction include:
• Five to six feet of widened roadway per direction
• Enhancing intersection safety and functionality
• Medians, turn lanes, new traffic signals, utility upgrades, drainage and storm sewer improvements, sidewalks curb ramps, and new street lighting
• Putting utilities underground

Planned streetscape improvements include:
• Raised planting areas
• Colored, patterned concrete in the median
• Irrigation system in the median
• Tree plantings in medians and along sidewalks

You can check the status of the Better Denver Bond Program’s transportation, streets and public works projects at the city’s web site at Denvergov.org.

Among the larger projects are $10.35 million for widened sidewalks and pedestrian improvements along the east side of 14th Street through the downtown theater and convention district. You can view a video showing a computer-simulated overflight of this project here for Windows Media Player or here for Quicktime Media Player.

There is also $4.14 million for reconstruction of Cherry Creek Drive South between University and Colorado boulevards; $9.11 million for pedestrian and streetscape improvements along West Colfax and 14th Avenues between Bannock Street and Speer Boulevard – a continuation of the Civic Center green space concept from the park to Cherry Creek; and $5.175 million total for improvements for pedestrians and transit users along both East and West Colfax Avenue.

Hickenlooper on Tuesday became the sole Democrat in the race to replace Gov. Bill Ritter, who surprised the state’s political circles by pulling out of a re-election race. Former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis and Evergreen business owner Dan Maes are running to be the Republican nominee.

Hickenlooper has the crush of history riding against him. Only one person has ever been both a Denver mayor and a governor of Colorado. That was quite an unusual case. John Routt, for whom the northwest Colorado county was named during his first term, served as the state’s first governor from statehood in 1876 to 1879. Routt later was elected mayor of Denver in 1883, serving two years. Then in 1891, he ran again for governor and won another term.