The Jefferson Parkway and Indiana Street
West Arvada has struggled with growing transportation challenges for over 20 years. Residents have continually expressed frustration over increasing congestion, safety concerns, and construction fatigue. The Jefferson Parkway project, highlighted in the recent Denver Channel 7 article, was planned for over 50 years, and is the last remaining section of a regional beltway left to be built.
With the focus of the Channel 7 article on the congested segments of Indiana and the latest Jefferson Parkway settlement with the City and County of Broomfield, I’d like to highlight current efforts by the City of Arvada to explore improvements to Indiana Street and other efforts to alleviate congestion without having to build the Jefferson Parkway.
The Parkway, Indiana Street and the Arvada Transportation Systems Plan
The Jefferson Parkway has met several challenges over the years including the more recent legal battle between the City and County of Broomfield and the City of Arvada over financial contributions and land dedication. There have also been criticisms of the on/off ramp configurations and concerns about the health impacts of disturbing contaminated soil required to build the parkway.
Arvada City Council member Bob Fifer highlighted around 8 million dollars is spent by the City of Arvada on maintenance efforts for Indiana in response to concerns voiced by the public. Though CDOT does not currently have plans to widen Indiana or address the costly rail bridge widening between 82nd avenue and 86th Parkway, the City of Arvada has been developing a Transportation Systems Plan (TSP) for a little over 2 years to address congestion and efficiency city-wide. The TSP studied existing conditions, build-out projections, and collected community input to identify the critical infrastructure investments needed to meet residents' needs.
Over 70 key infrastructure projects identified over the 2 year TSP process. Each project was evaluated and ranked using a strict evaluation rubric that included public input. The widening of Indiana Street was divided into multiple projects with the majority landing in the top 5 out of 70. The City will still need to work extensively with CDOT on future ownership and identify funding for an undertaking as large as the widening of Indiana Street, but what is clear at this stage is that the City of Arvada is fully aware of need residents are experiencing and the importance of a more efficient regional connection between Broomfield/Boulder/Lafayette and Golden/Wheatridge/Lakewood.
The overall condition of Indiana Street was also discussed in the news segment. One resident described having to replace suspension components and tires due to damage from pot holes. In the interim, the city continually evaluates road way conditions using the PQI or pavement quality index as a rating system. In a recent evaluation completed by a consulting firm, Arvada was shown to have some of the worst road conditions across the metro area. Mill and overlay project timelines are commonly cited as taking too long by residents who deal with pot holes every day. If Indiana were to be widened the new road would also require long-term maintenance budgeting. Currently, there is a substantial gap between annual maintenance budgets and paving needs in the City of Arvada.
A Word on Costs: Pavement Quality Index (PQI)
Part of the TSP effort included unit cost estimating and applying those costs to individual projects to generate high level budgets. The completed cost to improve Indiana Street is well beyond what Arvada would likely fund on its own; well over 100 million dollars in total. To put that in perspective the city’s total operating budget is around 380 million. Most cities address major infrastructure costs by first seeding the effort with a study (far cheaper than implementation), and then working with regional partners, like CDOT (they own most of Indiana St), and/or through grants from the federal government. As Council Member Bob Fifer mentioned in the Denver 7 news segment, Arvada has been looking at the congestion challenges on Indiana Street for a long time and grant opportunities are being explored constantly.
The highest cost item without a doubt is the rail bridge widening. To rebuild a rail bridge requires shutting down the rail line, unfortunately for the construction budget that can only be done for 24 hours at a time.
What’s a Shoofly?
The 24 hour restriction means that a “shoofly” will likely be required. A shoofly is an alternate route that is constructed to allow rail usage during construction of the new primary rail line. Because both the new primary rail and the temporary secondary rail are both bridges as well, this is likely to cost closer to $60 million to implement.
Ways to Address Traffic in Arvada
Optimize Traffic Signal Timing
By far the most cost effective option currently available to the city to address congestion is optimizing signal timing city wide. Today, signals are timed based on counts per location which leads to many folks experiencing multiple red lights in a row. This is especially noticeable for me on Ralston, 64th, and Wadsworth, but can be experienced in other parts of Arvada. Another tool the city has access to as part of the TSP effort is a complete traffic model of the city including every signalized intersection and counts. This model has been used to generate optimized signal timing that, if you are driving within speed limits, will result in fewer redlight stops per trip.
Active Transportation Methods
Another key investment opportunity that will have city-wide benefits is investing in active transportation, better bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and micro mobility options like e-bikes and scooters. Many of our local trips may not require the use of a vehicle, but for most residents - its the only practical/safe option. Expanding our multimodal network will give travelers the option to use alternative means for short trips and lower the total number of cars on the road.
Arvada has invested in retrofitting bike lanes across the city, nearly all are striped only with adjacent traffic speeds of 35-40 mph and generally provide a low level of comfort for most riders. This diagram shows a buffered solution that separates cyclists from traffic providing a more comfortable experience.
Alternatives to the Jefferson Parkway
There are several challenges associated with north/south and east/west movement in Arvada. Acknowledging that widening Indiana Street is a key priority including plans to identify and pursue funding. The city cannot self fund this effort. CDOT has not indicated interest in funding the widening of Indiana, however in other areas of the state CDOT has provided funding for roadway improvement projects in exchange for local municipalities taking ownership of all future maintenance responsibilities. If that were an option, the City of Arvada would then be responsible for maintaining all or most of Indiana in the future.
There are several alternatives to advancing the Jefferson Parkway project that will meaningfully improve traffic conditions. Widening Indiana Street is a lower cost, though still substantial, option. Investments in better bike facilities and addressing sidewalk gaps will also help alleviate local traffic, while optimizing signal timing may be the best options for low cost high impact congestion relief.
GO WitH Griffith: Mike GriffIth for Arvada City Council At-Large
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