DENVER — The Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) was awarded a federal grant for $576,000 to make improvements around nine corridors where city officials have seen an increase in crashes.
“Whether you’re walking, biking, or driving, we'll take a look at the corridor to see what improvements can be made, what's the experience for people who travel along this corridor and how can we make it better," said Nancy Kuhn, communications director for public works.
DOTI will use this federal grant to hire an outside contractor to examine the roadways and identify ways to mitigate safety issues using an approach known as a "Road Safety Audit."
Based on crash rates and areas of greatest need, those nine corridors include:
- Alameda Avenue from Kearney Street to Fairmount Drive
- Broadway from E. Colfax Avenue to 29th Street
- Colorado Boulevard from Mississippi Avenue to Iliff Avenue
- Speer Boulevard from Federal Boulevard to Elitch Circle
- University Boulevard from Iowa Avenue to Yale Avenue
- W. 38th Avenue from Federal Boulevard to Fox Street
- Evans Avenue from Colorado Blvd to Quebec Street
- Tower Road from 45th Avenue to 56th Avenue
- Tower Road from 56th Avenue to 71st Avenue
“These tend to be arterial roadways, wide roadways where speeds are higher," said Kuhn. "Some of those corridors are places where we know there’s more fatal and serious injury crashes happening, so we’re just taking a really close look at these corridors where we know we have issues to see how we can make it better."
In 2021, DOTI had the highest number of traffic deaths with 84 fatalities and 381 serious injury crashes.
Kuhn said the department will focus on short-term solutions first, before moving on for long-term changes. Some of the solutions around these corridors could be signal retiming, crosswalk upgrades, signing and striping improvements, signal rebuilds or installs and median installations.
“Once we have the legwork done, we’re going to look at what can we do quickly and then what other things need additional funding, so we can seek funding for as it comes in," said Kuhn.
The "Safe Streets and Roads for All" grant program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocating $800 million in investments over the next five years.
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