A Denver City Council committee on Wednesday postponed a crucial vote on a proposed overhaul of the main highway to Denver International Airport: Peña Boulevard.
Airport officials had asked the council’s Business, Arts, Workforce, Climate & Aviation Services Committee to send a $15 million contract with Peak Consulting Group to the full council. The contract would require Peak Consulting to lead the project through the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, including by partially designing the project.
But discussion around the contract ran so long that it will now extend into another day. Several council members said they had concerns about the project – especially after receiving hundreds of emails from constituents.
“I'm at 700 emails and most of them are from this,” said Council President Amanda Sandoval. “I don't think I've gotten one email so far to support this contract.”
Airport leaders say Peña is in vital need of a revamp — but it hasn’t identified a clear vision for the road.
Airport officials have been studying and planning the Peña project for years, and have also repeatedly said that they haven’t decided exactly how the highway will be changed. But airport CEO Phil Washington told Denverite in 2023 that he wants a “very responsible” expansion of the road between Interstate 70 and E-470.
Airport leaders say they’re responding to DIA’s increasing passenger volume, which has caused traffic headaches for people driving to the airport. Transit advocates and some council members, meanwhile, argue that a wider road will attract more drivers in the long run and want the airport to explore transit-only improvements instead.
Last February, DIA officials released a master plan that outlines the future of Peña Boulevard. The plan identifies five options for the road’s future:
- Adding a bus-only lane
- Adding a “managed lane” either for carpools or a toll lane
- Building a frontage road for local traffic off the highway,
- Building a collector road to separate airport express traffic and local traffic
- Or doing nothing at all.
If the contract is approved, Peak Consulting Group will be responsible for producing an initial design for a new Peña Boulevard needed to satisfy the NEPA process. The 5-year contract also includes an option to submit a full design.
Peña’s potential expansion has gotten continuous pushback. The proposed contract is no different.
In 1995, daily traffic along Peña Boulevard was reported to be about 75,000 vehicles. That nearly doubled by 2023.
DIA officials say they want to alleviate traffic congestion on the busy corridor, which will have the added benefit of preventing crashes. According to the airport’s master plan, 45 percent of crashes on Peña between 2016 and 2023 were rear-end collisions, largely due to congestion.
Portions of Peña near the airport terminal have already been expanded in recent years and other changes are happening now. To expand the rest of it would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars and require a significant contribution from the city’s own coffers.
A vote last year on the Peña project divided the Council but narrowly passed. And now, in a new joint letter, organizations like Greater Denver Transit, Denver Bicycle Lobby and the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, urged council members to vote no on the contract in its current form.
They want more investment in the Regional Transportation District’s A Line, which ferries passengers between the airport and downtown Denver.
“Do not fund the Peña Blvd NEPA study until DEN reinstates their ‘multimodal and equity’ alternative for a full analysis,” the letter said. “This will allow DEN to consider investments such as dedicated park-n-rides, train station lengthening to accommodate more cars, double tracking to allow higher maximum frequency, expanded feeder bus routes, and operational funding to increase existing frequency and lower fares without the need to expand Peña Blvd.”
RTD officials, however, have said recently that they have no active plans to improve the A Line.
The debate was revived at Wednesday's council committee meeting.
Questions from council members reflected the public interest in the topic — the hearing went so long that the committee had to adjourn the meeting and postpone any action on the contract, as several council members hadn’t been given an opportunity to ask questions. The committee will reconvene in two weeks.
At-large Councilmember Sarah Parady said she doesn’t plan to vote to approve the contract because she feels it should include work to increase A Line ridership.
“My question is if you won't commit to direct our firm to study how to get more people on the A Line, alongside the other things that may need to happen with Peña, and we may have to do some of both, why won't you study that?” she asked DIA officials present at the meeting.
DIA officials seemed to shift responsibility for increasing ridership of trains toward RTD. Scott Morrissey, senior director for sustainability at DIA, said the airport has worked with the city to encourage passengers and employees to take the A Line, but that increasing ridership isn’t their focus.
“Even in the current situation where it can, at certain parts of the day, be extremely inconvenient to arrive at the airport via a car on Peña Boulevard, it’s not driving more people to the A Line,” Morrissey said.
Councilmember Kevin Flynn, who represents southwestern Denver, agreed with that sentiment.
“We have to fill those seats before anybody will give RTD any dollars to expand the A Line,” he said. “And when it does, it still will not serve my part of town.”
Airport officials at the meeting stressed that the contract doesn’t necessarily mean it will expand the highway.
“The study itself will reveal other alternatives that are possibilities,” CEO Washington told council members. “And so all we're saying is let's do the study.”
