A rush of workers and equipment helps Concrete Works of Colorado get a one-block section of new sidewalk along South Broadway done in one day. Inside Lane photo.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

One block of South Broadway in Denver on Thursday turned into what Joe Schwartz, Concrete Works of Colorado superintendent, calls an ant hill.

That’s when all hands are on deck in a colony of activity for a contractor to get in quickly, get a job done and get out by the end of the work day.

For the city of Denver’s ambitious South Broadway reconstruction, a project funded by the voter-approved Better Denver bond program, that meant getting the new sidewalks poured in one day on the east side of the 1500 block south.

“The ant hill – that’s what we call it,” Schwartz said while roaming the block to choreograph the work and make sure everyone is sequenced on time – that’s how to ensure each crew is ready to move on to the next task.

Making a big push to do the work in one area so quickly is a huge help to businesses on the block, whose access is temporarily disrupted by the construction.

“Our aim is to get this done as quickly as possible,” said Ann Leggett, spokeswoman for Concrete Works of Colorado. “We made a commitment to the people here to get this done today.”

Bill Wieder, left, stands in front of his South Broadway properties watching the work. He grew up on the block and believes the improvements will be a boost to investment in the neighborhood. Inside Lane photo.

“I think it’s going to be very much of a stimulant to Broadway because it will look so much better,” said Wieder, whose mother bought property on the block in 1948. Wieder grew up here and is landlord to several of the businesses on the east side. He can remember when neighboring Herman’s Hideaway was Cunningham’s Supper Club, and can rattle off where the grocery store and doughnut shop used to be.

He said he’s reduced their rents during the project to help them weather the construction period and come out the other side.

Concrete Works is helping with that too by allowing parking along its new concrete curbs when work permits, and by putting out numerous signs along other curbside areas for shopper parking.

When the project is finished – and this is only the first of three segments that will reconstruct Broadway in concrete all the way to the Englewood line – both the city and the property owners expect that the improved transportation infrastructure will boost the economy of the neighborhood.

You can view a slideshow of the work. The photos were taken on Thursday.

To expand to full screen and read the captions, first click on the “play” button and then click on the box that will appear at the lower right corner — with the four little arrows pointing outward. When the full screen appears, click on “Show Info” at the menu bar on the top right.

Perhaps the best aspect of the work is lowering the grade on the street itself. Frequent drivers of the area around Broadway and Iowa Avenue know how hail storms and summer downpours can result in flooding there. Over the years, the street surface has built up to where it is higher than the sidewalks. As traffic made it through the water, it pushed waves of runoff onto the sidewalks and into the fronts doors of the businesses. Many owners have sandbags at the ready to keep the water out.

New drainage patterns on the street will resolve that problem.

The work also includes Denver Water’s replacement of a 100-year-old water line, a late addition that held up work for a bit, but this portion of the job will still be done in June, says Augie Maestas, the city’s inspector following the work.

The South Broadway project represents a major investment in the popular commercial strip that houses the metro area’s Antique Row, among other businesses. The plan includes a raised landscaped median similar to that in Englewood, with a mix of trees, antique-style streetlamps, sidewalk planting areas and colored concrete in the median.

Rendering shows what the 1500 block of South Broadway will look like when the project is completed. City of Denver rendering.

One of the first items of work was to remove old Denver Tramway trolley tracks that were still embedded under the asphalt.

It’s getting through the pain of construction to get to that gain of revitalization. The ant-hill approach, sort of a construction SWAT team, helps.

Schwartz had 45 crew members at work up and down the block, including company owner Marc Lenart, who was operating a loader. Each with their own tasks, the crews moved from framing and preparing each site to tamping down fill dirt for an even surface to pouring and spreading the concrete and, finally, to finishing and smoothing it.

The city divided the entire 17-block project into three pieces. Schwartz said the four-block section now under construction between Iowa and Arizona avenues will be done in June. It includes new traffic signals at Iowa, Arkansas and Louisiana avenues. It is a $6.8 million contract. Next month, the southern segment from the Englewood line at Yale Avenue to Wesley Avenue will go out to bid. The middle and largest segment, Wesley to Iowa, will be last.

Mike Roth, co-owner of the popular Herman’s Hideaway, watched the crew pour the first new sidewalk slab right at his doorway – as he pondered whether to put his initials in the wet batch once the crew moved up the way.

Mike Roth, right, co-owner of Herman's Hideaway, watches the crew finish the slab in front of the popular club. Inside Lane photo.

His grandfather was Herman, who started at Cunningham’s in 1962. He bought the place, changed the name and began booking musical acts into the place in 1982 and it has become a prime destination on South Broadway since then. The place helped launch Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Opie Gone Bad. It has fostered local talent as well as featuring such bands as Faith No More, 311, The Fray, Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic and Phish.

Roth said he prepared for the construction period by realizing that he’d lose some of the impulse customers who might drive by and otherwise come in but for seeing all the dirt and equipment.

“I saw this coming a mile away and started booking real strong acts,” Roth said. That would help ensure his regulars and those destination customers would come regardless of having to park a bit farther away.

“We’ll put it in our ads when the work is done,” Roth said. “Because to see something like this happen on South Broadway is exciting.”