Segments of Quebec Street will be shut down near Colfax Avenue over the next few months to make way for sidewalk construction.
The busy north-south street is an especially bad stretch for Denver pedestrians. It’s lined near Colfax with dirt paths, pavement and overgrown shrubs — making it one of the more dangerous streets in the city.
A new city project aims to change that by building sidewalks from 12th Avenue to Montview Boulevard, a 0.75-mile stretch that currently has only small scraps of sidewalks.
The project will involve full closures of the street on weekdays for both pedestrians and drivers. Two or three blocks will be closed at a time.
Here’s the Quebec Street closure schedule:
- Dec. 2 to Dec. 20: 13th Avenue to Colfax Avenue to be closed
- Jan. 2 to Feb. 17: Colfax Avenue to 17th Avenue.
- Feb. 18 to April 3: 17th Avenue. to Montview Boulevard.
Detours will send drivers to Syracuse Street and Monaco Parkway, although they might also use the numerous smaller streets in between.
The city is closing the entire street — and not just the sides — because it will be safer, and it also will speed construction by several months, according to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.
Voters approved this back in 2017
The $3.9 million project is funded by Elevate Denver, a set of debt-funded projects that voters approved in 2017.
The Quebec Street project also includes an upgrade to the traffic signal at Quebec Street and 17th Avenue.
The city did not have to buy property from any private landowners to complete the project. The new sidewalks will be built within the public right-of-way.
Originally, the Quebec Street sidewalk project was also going to include sidewalks for an intersecting stretch of 17th Avenue, but there wasn’t enough money in the budget. The city is moving ahead with designs for the 17th Avenue walkways, but that project will have to wait for more money.
Starting in January, Denver property owners will begin paying about $40 million in sidewalk fees that will pay for future projects like this.
