Denver should prioritize improving public transportation over expanding the main highway that connects the city and the airport, Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington said on Wednesday.
"Transit would be our first option," he told Denverite in an interview.
But, he added, public transportation's limited effectiveness in some corners of the sprawling Denver area means the airport is also pushing the city for a larger Peña Boulevard.
"We want to expand and increase the efficiency for Peña [Boulevard]. But we want to do so in a very responsible way," he said.
The best approach to improving accessibility to the airport is a hot topic right now, as more travelers than ever travel through its iconic tented canopy. Airport officials are collecting public feedback through the end of the month on how to improve Peña Boulevard.
One option is to add toll lanes that could be used to bypass traffic and encourage carpooling, buses and shuttles. Some advocacy groups, however, are pushing officials to prioritize improvements to the Regional Transportation District's A Line train between the airport and downtown and the addition of new buses to the airport.
Washington, as it happens, once ran RTD. But he said federal law means the airport "can't just dish out money" to the transit agency.
Any expansion of Peña Boulevard could mark the last highway expansion in the city and county of Denver, after the Colorado Department of Transportation and regional planners canceled a planned expansion of Interstate 25 to comply with a state climate law. Research shows that highway expansions, even through toll lanes, generally lead to more driving in the long run.
DIA brass, led by Washington, on Wednesday gave a City Council committee an overview of the airport and updates on major projects. Among the revelations: Passenger traffic is growing faster than officials had anticipated, and the airport just capped the last oil well that was operating at the airport.
Denverite caught up with Washington afterward and asked him a few questions. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Denverite: You told the council committee that the airport could hit 100 million passengers by 2027, years earlier than older predictions. Is that right?
Washington: It's not an official forecast. But this is what we believe looking at the actuals starting this year of 78 [million] at the end of this year.
Denverite: Is that going to change growth plans at all?
Washington: We're looking to accelerate what we're doing in terms of the projects anyway. We're always looking for those opportunities to accelerate, so we'll keep doing that.
Denverite: The airport just plugged its last oil well this past Sunday, you told the council committee. Why did you wind down that program?
Washington: Well, what we wanted to do was, as I said two years ago, be the greenest airport in the world. And that was part of getting there, plugging those abandoned oil wells. The abandoned oil wells were costing us probably more money to maintain them. So this actually saves us a great deal of money to plug them. And so we did that. Promise made, promise kept.
Denverite: Can you say how much money?
Washington: We'd have to get that to you. I don't want to guess on that.
Denverite: On Peña Boulevard, do you as CEO have any thoughts on what should happen there?
Washington: Well, we should do the study. We've got the study out there. We want to see the results of the study, and we're being very, very transparent that there should be a study to guide what we do going forward.
What we do know is that we're looking at tremendous growth, and that includes Peña Boulevard. We see tremendous growth at the airport. Naturally, Peña Boulevard is a big piece of that. At the same time, we are advocating and working with RTD to increase the transit mode share. And we did that through the EcoPass thing that we did [for employees at the airport], and we'll continue to do that. But I think we have to have all options on the table, including transit, to be able to provide the best customer experience.
Denverite: Is DIA trying to keep its thumb off the scale at this point when it comes to all these different options?
Washington: Sure, sure. Absolutely.
Denverite: During the campaign, Mike Johnston said look, we need to do public transit first, let's back burner any talk of expansion. What's your relationship like with the administration on this?
Washington: It's good. Yeah. It's good... There's no space between us and the administration. I mean, we want to see transit first too. But we also understand that there's places within the region that probably can't take transit. And so we recognize that too. So it's our job to look at all options.
Transit would be our first option. I think the transit mode share is under 10 percent right now, if I'm not mistaken. We want to see that increase. But at the same time, we know that [in] certain corners of the region transit is not accessible.
Denverite: And the federal government limits what you can spend your money on. Is that right?
Washington: Correct.
Denverite: Is there any room to push there? So you could actually give RTD a couple hundred million bucks to make the A Line go a lot faster?
Washington: Well, we've got this little pesky diversion of revenue rule out there that's federal law. So we've got to be careful with that. But we look to partner with RTD, on anything we can. We can't just dish out money though.
We have to have that non-air airport revenue mix, which I think is about 27 percent or so. So we've got to just watch that. But we're all in the same camp. We want to expand and increase the efficiency for Peña [Boulevard]. But we want to do so in a very responsible way.
Denverite: There's chatter on Twitter that tomorrow's announcement about a new international destination from DIA is Dublin. Is that right?
Washington: Listen, you've got to wait. You've got to wait. Or, you know, call me at midnight.
