DENVER | Transportation Thread

[seventwenty]

Originally Posted by Octavian

Longmont Times Call

The article's comments are hysterical.

[Octavian]

Very nice slideshow of DUS progress as of May 31 with lots of photos of the interior of the station and an update on the project schedule and private development.

http://www.denverunionstation.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=533&Itemid=

[Zmapper]

Someone who is on a forum I frequent happens to be an intern for the city, and discovered plans from the '60s for two freeways bisecting Downtown Denver: http://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=7502

I think we can agree that it was a very good thing that those plans never came to fruition.

[Octavian]

Originally Posted by Zmapper

Someone who is on a forum I frequent happens to be an intern for the city, and discovered plans from the '60s for two freeways bisecting Downtown Denver: http://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=7502

I think we can agree that it was a very good thing that those plans never came to fruition.

They tore down a lot of historic buildings in to get ready to build it.

[Cirrus]

Say goodbye to LoDo. It never happened in that alternate universe.

The terrifying thing is that the comparable highway actually got built in a lot of cities. Denver turned out pretty lucky.

[bunt_q]

Cirrus - didn't Dwayne (Nuzum) ever show you any of the stuff he had on the proposed freeway through LoDo (shown as the skyline freeway here)? I think he worked on that at some point.

Suffice it to say, yeah, Denver was lucky. Not lucky enough - we still tore way too much down. But at least it can be replaced without first having a freeway removal battle.

[Cirrus]

If he did, I forgot about it.

Ol' Dwayne. He was my favorite. RIP.

[llamaorama]

Wow that's absolutely crazy."Urban freeway parking" replacing what looks to be Union Station is interesting. Were there ever any major freeways in the US that dead-end into purpose-built parking lots or garages? Basically they found an excuse to completely bulldoze every last bit of LoDo in that map

Gotta love the look of those old maps and illustrations though. Everything is burnt orange and green.

[rds70]

Originally Posted by Zmapper

Someone who is on a forum I frequent happens to be an intern for the city, and discovered plans from the '60s for two freeways bisecting Downtown Denver: http://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=7502

I think we can agree that it was a very good thing that those plans never came to fruition.

Here is a rendering of the freeways from 1968 also showing the redevelopment of LoDo:

[DownhomeDenver]

Awww we missed our chance to look just like Dallas. What a shame! NOT! lol

[Wizened Variations]

Originally Posted by rds70

Here is a rendering of the freeways from 1968 also showing the redevelopment of LoDo:

At least the railroads have a straight shot through Denver!

Until they disappear into a tunnel? in the lower left of the photo..... LOL

[CharlesCO]

That's very interesting. I have never seen or read much about the proposed Denver freeways despite there being a lot of that information for other cities. It looks like the only proposed freeways that were built were 270, 225, 470 (or a very early concept of it), I-76 to I-70, and CO-58 into Golden. The Skyline and Columbine freeways overlap too much with the Valley Highway for them to ever be effective or necessary. It's also amazing to think that a freeway and parking lots right next to a playground and public housing constituted 'good' 'urban' midcentury planning.

What I do wonder though, is why these were not built— was it a result of freeway revolt, stagnant growth, or no money?

[bobg]

I have seen these plans before and have always thought that the Skyline freeway wasn't that bad relative to some of the other ones they had planned. Especially when put in the context of what the area NW of Lawrence looked like at that time. Of course knowing what the city was able to do with LoDo we got really lucky with that one.

Knowing what the city looked like then I think the Columbine freeway going through west wash park, capitol hill, and uptown is much more egregious . I would also put the Mountain North Freeway on the same level of idiocy.

[wong21fr]

A little update on the construction at Union Station, though nothing we aren't already aware of:

Transit phase of Denver Union Station project is 65 percent complete
By John Mossman
The Denver Post
August 21, 2012

Tucked behind Union Station and mostly out of view of Denver residents and office workers, crews are on the fast track toward completing the transit phase of the redevelopment of the historic train station and surrounding area.
Overall, the main elements of the transit plan are 65 percent complete, according to Roger Sherman, spokesman for the Denver Union Station Project Authority.

[taylor23]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

A little update on the construction at Union Station, though nothing we aren't already aware of:

Transit phase of Denver Union Station project is 65 percent complete
By John Mossman
The Denver Post
August 21, 2012

Your right about nothing new. It just reads like someone just took the project update from two weeks ago and tried to turn it into late braking news.

http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/media/uploa...UpdateFasTracks_Monitoring_Committee.pdf

[The Dirt]

I'm disappointed that it's not 66.6% done. Not even 2/3rds done!

[SnyderBock]

I think it probably is 66.67% complete by now. It was 65% complete when they released the last monthly FasTracks update newsletter. That was a solid 10+ days ago, IIRC.

[PLANSIT]

Some shots of the DIA Hotel/Station model:

Provides a little more detail than renderings I've seen.

[Zmapper]

I see that the tracks are offset, presumably to allow for future tracks to be inserted to the east. Way to think ahead DIA!

[wong21fr]

^Or for a future people mover to the rental car facilities.