DENVER — The Regional Transportation District announced on Wednesday they would renovate 37 bus stops between Broadway in Denver and Interstate 225 in Aurora along the East Colfax Limited route.
The route - 15L East Colfax Limited - will see those bus stops get "enhanced shelters" with lighting. Not just that, but some will see queue bypass lanes, curb extensions and expanded boarding areas at key bus stops, RTD said.
The improvement project is the first meaningful investment in the route in the last 30 years, the transportation district said. Both the 15 and 15L routes carry 24,000 passengers every weekday which equals the C and D light rail lines combined for traffic.
More details on the project are expected on Thursday at 10 a.m. RTD Board Chair Doug Tisdale will be joined by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, Aurora Council member at-large Angela Lawson and several transportation officials to speak about the project.
This investment in a route which is mostly on East Colfax Avenue isn't the first suggested change over the last few years. "Bus rapid transit" coming to Colfax got a lot of buzz after the city announced it received a grant from the Federal Transit Administration in 2016.
Bus rapid transit would remove the center lanes of Colfax and given them over to buses directly. Rapid transit is a different project than the 15L improvements.
"With population and business growth in the area expected to increase significantly in the next 20 years, there is an opportunity to reimagine how Colfax functions, looks and feels while accommodating an increasing need for enhanced mobility and safety along the corridor," reads the city's public works explainer on the project.
Dubbed "Colfax Corridor Connections," the project's last meeting was held on Aug. 8, 2018, and focused on identifying where the rapid transit stations would go, what the new intersection lights would look like and shows off some newly designed crosswalks.
Construction on the project is tentatively slated to begin in 2020. More on the project can be found here.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Local stories from 9NEWS
