By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

While the public is telling RTD, Denver and downtown businesses what they think of proposals that could radically restructure the famous 16th Street Mall, RTD is planning to test different methods of fixing recurring problems with the mall’s infamous and recurrently loose granite pavers.

Within a year, downtown denizens can expect to see the block between Court and Tremont places, fronted by the Sheraton Hotel and Republic Plaza, used as a pilot project to find out if, finally, after more than 25 years, someone can get those pesky four-inch-thick granite squares to stay put.

The Downtown Denver Partnership, RTD, the city of Denver and the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District are leading a planning process to reinvigorate the 1.3-mile transitway and magnet for pedestrians.

At an open house presentation for the 16th Street Plan on Wednesday at the Tattered Cover in lower downtown, interested members of the public took a look at the concepts that call for rehabilitating the mall as is, putting the two bus lanes next to each other the whole way to eliminate the problematic median space, and moving one direction of shuttle buses over to 15th Street to create more pedestrian and gathering spots on 16th.

You can view all of these concepts here.

You can view more detailed renderings of the concepts here.

And you can read the statement of intent and guiding principles of the planning process here.

Working with consultants from ZGF Architects in Portland and one of the mall’s original designers, Laurie Olin of the Olin Studio in Philadelphia, the partners and members of their steering committee hope to come up with a plan that will serve the downtown community for the next three decades.

While fixing up the mall, the partners hope to reduce the slipperiness of the granite when they are wet. John Desmond, Vice President of Urban Planning and Environment for the Downtown Denver Partnership, said the stones can be treated and cleaned to reduce buildup on them and increase traction.

John Shonsey, RTD’s chief engineer, said the transit agency – which operates the popular shuttle service on the mall – will put out a design-build solicitation for contractors to do a pilot project on the 300 block that will test four different methods for getting the pavers to stay in place. There are about 400,000 pavers of three different colors on the mall.

Shonsey said RTD wants to take the four quadrants of that block – at both ends of the two bus lanes – and use different methods that will subject the pavers to the heavy acceleration and braking the buses use.

Currently, RTD spends about a million dollars a year repairing loose granite. It was initially funded with the settlement from a 1984 lawsuit against designer I.M. Pei and four other defendants.

A principal aim of the 16th Street Plan is to enhance the potential for retail development, street vending and public events. The group has suggested that the main segment of the mall between Tremont Place and Arapahoe Street, where the bus lanes are separated by a median that hosts vending stands, benches, fountains, seats and other amenities, can have more potential if the median is eliminated.

According to the project web site, the 16th Street Plan will include:
• A careful analysis of the Mall’s current conditions, its strengths and weaknesses;
• Recommendations for short-term actions to reduce maintenance expenditures;
• A comprehensive reinvestment plan and management plan;
• An implementation strategy, which includes the identification of funding sources for capital improvements and ongoing maintenance.

Brian McCarter, a principal with ZGF, said some of the mall’s perceived problems such as loitering transients stem from this island between the bus lanes. Adding that space back to one of the sidewalks, likely the one on the east side, would create a larger contiguous area for pedestrians and special events.

Concept One is to leave the mall configured as it is but do comprehensive rehabilitation to the granite, especially in the transitway path where constant wear and tear, freeze and thaw loosen the pavers. An earlier estimate of this scenario estimated it would cost about $51 million. There is no price tag on Concept Two, eliminating the median, or Concept Three, putting northbound shuttle traffic on 15th Street between Cleveland Place and Arapahoe Street.

McCarter said using 15th Street opens up the opportunity to revitalize properties lining this heavily-used traffic route. But it would require a significant investment in traffic studies and infrastructure. Currently four to five one-way traffic lanes northbound, 15th would have to be slimmed down to three vehicular lanes to accommodate a bus-only lane on the right, new streetscape and passenger loading areas, and a widened sidewalk on the east side. Current sidewalks there are as narrow as nine feet.

McCarter said that would be the costliest concept. But it garnered some support.

“If 14th is being redone and 16th is being redone, why leave an eyesore in the middle?” Alex Armatas, a Denver resident, told McCarter. Denver has major plans to reconstruct 14th Street.

The open house is also being presented Thursday in the Sheraton Hotel from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Tower Court A.