$20 million for a walking bridge? Pedestrian advocates have other ideas.
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DENVER — State officials are celebrating Colorado’s 150th birthday next year with a pedestrian bridge connecting the Colorado State Capitol to Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park.
Spearheaded by Gov. Jared Polis’ office and designed by an out-of-state firm, the bridge is estimated to cost between $18-20 million. Renderings show the bridge curving over Lincoln Street, stretching more than 11,000 square feet.
The project's location, cost and design have drawn some heavy criticism.
In renderings, the bridge — called the Colorado 150 Pedestrian Walkway — takes a sinuous path over Lincoln Street’s four lanes of traffic.
Currently, there are two crosswalks that pedestrians can use to cross Lincoln Street: one at the Colfax intersection and another on 14th Street.
Many people who need to get from the park to the Capitol, or vice versa, disregard these crosswalks.
“If you pull up a chair and sit on either side of Lincoln Street, you can just watch how people dart across the street all day long because of how the street is designed,” said Jonathan Stalls, a self-described “walking artist” who runs the popular Instagram account Pedestrian Dignity.
Stalls advocates for better infrastructure for pedestrians in a car-centric society. He said the way the bridge is built discourages people from even using it in the first place because it takes longer to cross than walking across the street.
“When I look at this loopy, windy, swirly bridge, it tells me that this bridge is so disconnected from practical pedestrian behavior,” Stalls said.
Anne Pharamond, an architect with Studio Trope Design Collective who is working with the lead firm on the project, Studio Gang, said the bridge is winding because the design had to meet historic guidelines by avoiding trees in the park. The bridge also had to meet standards for a sloped walkway that doesn’t require handrails and is comfortable for people in wheelchairs.
“It can’t be any shorter, because then it would be too steep and obviously there’s no reason for it be longer,” Pharamond said.
Using both private and public funding, the governor’s office expects the bridge’s construction to cost around $20 million.
“[The bridge] is pretty misguided and isn’t a good use of money if we want to make that part of Denver more walkable and pedestrian-friendly,” said Jill Locantore, executive director of Denver Streets Partnership.
Locantore said if the goal is to make the area safer for pedestrians, the focus should be on the design of Broadway and Lincoln Street.
“You have two main streets that are designed like highways to move as many cars through as fast as possible. That’s just fundamentally incompatible with a vibrant, pedestrian, people-oriented downtown area,” Locantore said.
Locantore said the government could instead use the funding to tame Broadway using a “road diet,” an approach that shrinks the amount of space allocated for cars while increasing space for pedestrians, bus lanes and bike lanes.
“Rather than an extremely expensive, impractical form of infrastructure, I’d rather see the governor help make the streets more pedestrian friendly,” Locantore said.
Stalls suggested the money be used to implement traffic calming techniques that use physical aspects like speed humps and road narrowing to slow vehicles moving through the downtown area.
In addition to meeting specific grade standards, the bridge’s winding design is meant to resemble the Colorado River.
“I think if it brings people into Colorado, into Denver, I think it’s fabulous,” said Toni Willhite, who was showing the Capitol to her two friends visiting from India.
Danielle Oliveto, deputy chief of staff for Gov. Jared Polis, said that the bridge celebrates Colorado’s 150th anniversary and serves as a walkway that features artwork and storytelling.
Almost 160 artists applied to work on the project all across the state. Polis’ office is putting together 20 teams of artists who will work on developing the experience of the bridge.
“There’s a misconception that we’re trying to create the shortest distance between two points. We’re not,” Pharamond said. “We want to create an experience for storytelling and art, creating a destination that people want to come to to learn about Colorado.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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