28th Street up for new design changes

BOULDER — As Boulder continues to grow and become a bustling hub of industry, high-volume transportation corridors such as 28th Street are up for new design changes.

The city of Boulder Transportation Advisory Board and the Boulder city council recently approved a new conceptual plan for the southern portion of 28th Street. The plan proposes widening the stretch of 28th between Baseline and Arapahoe and transforming the area near the Colorado Avenue entrance to the University of Colorado into a tree-lined gateway to the city. The plan has been reviewed by the city of Boulder Planning Board and the Boulder Urban Renewal Authority.

Yet not everyone is in agreement with the proposed redesign of the thoroughfare. Members of Bolder Bicycle Commuters (BBC), a group dedicated to using bicycles as a means of transportation, believe that the existing $12 million plan, which is scheduled to be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Transportation, is neither cost-efficient nor necessary.

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“The frontage road is already a perfect bike path,´ said Evan Ravitz, a BBC member and local activist. “The new plan would add a bike path to the east and another to the west (of 28th). That would make three paths where one underutilized path now exists. The road would also be widened to three lanes going north. As I see it, there are two driving things to this plan: Spend as much money as possible and pour as much concrete as you can.”

Ravitz said the city’s transportation division has a history of what he calls “parasitic pork” or overspending, and kickbacks from contractors. He cites a 1994 tax initiative that sought to raise $250 million for a variety of transit programs. The initiative was defeated 2-to-1 at the polls by Boulder voters. He also mentioned a BBC study that estimated the cost of connecting the southern section of Arapahoe to a citywide system of bicycle lanes at less than $10 million.

Tracy Winfree, a manger at the City of Boulder Department of Public Works’ transportation division, said the project is designed to soften up what is now a hard entrance to the city. She said the design of the project was advised by a citizen group of about 40 members that included representatives from various parts of the community and from the corridor itself.

“The design group considered the image, character, functional capacity and safety issues associated with the project. As it exists, the area is not considered to be friendly or inviting to pedestrians and bicyclists. The plan is to make the area more inviting to pedestrians and cyclists and encourage their activity there. Also, people are passing the University of Colorado entrance and saying ‘where is it?’ The plan would include the addition of some signifiers that would signal the entrance.”

Winfree said 28th Street is a major regional artery, connecting several Front Range cities including Longmont, Boulder, Denver and the Interlocken area and, thus, is at the top of the city’s transportation priorities.

“The southern portion of 28th Street is an important character zone that defines the entrance to Boulder and the University of Colorado,” she said. Despite the prominence of the road’s southern section, critics say the money earmarked for its revamping could be better used elsewhere.

“There has been no critical evaluation of the alternatives for what could be done with the money,´ said Rob Smoke, host of Public Affairs, a call-in talk show on local radio station KGNU.

“Basically, this project is a bike path no one ever asked for. A lot of the money is for water-depleting landscaping and a buffalo statue they want to put in the median. There are no real improvements. It’s serving the vested interests of the contractors. They want to turn it into a park, but when’s the last time you went to a park that had a six-lane highway running through it?”

Smoke said the money for the project would be better spent on other transportation-related needs in Boulder, such as fixing several of the city’s crosswalks.