A resolution approving a proposed contract between the City and County of Denver and Interstate Highway Construction, Inc. concerning design and construction services for Peña Boulevard at Denver International Airport. Approves a contract with Interstate Highway Construction, Inc. for $93,479,841.20 and through 05-30-22 to perform design and construction services for Peña Boulevard Phase 1 including widening and reconstructing both inbound and outbound Peña Boulevard, and reconstructing portions of Jackson Gap Road and the Jackson Gap interchange at Denver International Airport (201628522). The last regularly scheduled Council meeting within the 30-day review period is on 7-22-19. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 6-19-19. Pursuant to Council Rule 3.7, Councilman Espinoza postponed this item at the 7-8-19 Council meeting for a one-week postponement to 7-15-19.
I. Madam Secretary, please close voting. Announce the results. 1313 ays Resolution 540 has been adopted. Congratulations, Councilman. Councilman Cashman. Under resolutions, you called out 586. Madam Secretary, if you can put that on our screens, and what would you like to do with this one? I just have some questions, Mr. President. Go ahead. Well, first, I want to thank people and even in the team at the The Denver Streets Partnership for reminding us in view of the passage of a blueprint, Denver in the comprehensive plan recently the importance that as we're considering any substantial road widening projects, that we be sure to ask the questions that as this was being designed or conceived, that alternative forms of mobility were considered and included to the greatest extent possible. As this airport Pioneer Boulevard widening project is the first major road widening to come up since that passage. We thought it was more than appropriate to to ask some questions. I appreciate both the Street's partnership bringing it up, the airport's willingness to engage not just tonight in questions, but in an ongoing basis and answering these. So I guess. Thank you, Rachel. Stepping up. The first thing I would ask is how can you say that this project does support the goals in the new Blueprint Denver plan, as well as Denver's Vision Zero Action Plan to eliminate fatal and traffic fatalities and injuries. Sure. So thank you, Councilman Cashman. And thank you also to Denver Streets Partnership and all of the advocacy organizations that are out there elevating this conversation. I think it's an important one and it's one that the airport is very committed to. So we look forward to engaging in the conversation in terms of blueprint. Denver We've encouraged mode shift at the airport for a long time. We invested $350 million into the transit center for the A-line. We built out, gave $30 million to build out 61st and pioneer. That being said, we can always do better. We have plans to build out a bike network, and that's part of Suzuki's work on a done real estate strategic development plan. We also are promoting a walkable, transit oriented development at 61st and pinion as recently as a few weeks ago, are pushing the developers there to truly make it a dense, walkable, bikeable transit hub at that station and were among the major partners, along with Sierra and RTD, to create mobility next partnership and collaborate around connectivity and embracing the advancement of the next generation of mobility. So in everything we do, including this project, we're looking with an eye towards mobility and transit development and connectivity at the airport. Great. Thank you. So we discussed earlier that at this point in time, it doesn't sound like, again, has a specific goals for ride share, shift and reduction of trips and single occupancy vehicle is then willing to commit to working towards establishing such a goal for reducing SUV mode share in line with Blueprint. Absolutely. I think we're we're always committed to engaging that conversation. Quite frankly, the more people that choose alternative modes of travel out to the airport benefits not just the city, but the airport as well. As part of this project we have we are building out the ride share lot, so creating a designated lot for Taxi Uber, Lyft , and that will include electrification of that lot so that folks that have electric vehicles and are doing Uber and Lyft have the ability to charge out there. That being said, we we recognize we can do better and in the ways in which that we can engage these advocacy groups. RTC Dot. Dr. COG in evaluating new and creative solutions around getting people out of single occupancy vehicles. We are committed to that partnership and committed to meeting with those organizations. Okay, Mr. President, I have some additional questions, but I believe some of my colleagues do as well, so I'll defer. Okay. Thank you. Councilman Cashman, Councilman Espinosa. Hi, Rachel. For the public, can you explain where phase one, where phase one, this phase one project of Pena Boulevard is? Sure. So phase one of this Pioneer Boulevard design build project runs from Jackson Gap to the terminal. And Jackson Gap is essentially the last overpass or approximately. Yes, that crosses Pena Boulevard to the western, you know, the proper terminal. You know, we have a congestion problem in lots of parts of the city. When does it get bumper to bumper in that section of the highway? So what time of day or. What sort of congestion problem do we have there? So we I don't know if this helps answer your question. In 2017, we had a traffic study that was done that takes into account ridership at the line bus travel and evaluates past traffic on Pioneer Boulevard and then evaluates Dr. Cods, Dr. Cox Transit Use Study and then projects out to future traffic and existing traffic on Pioneer . We've also done our own internal studies on traffic apnea. We're about to hit around 70 million passengers flying out of the airport every year, and that's definitely putting some pressure on the infrastructure on Pioneer. So when we had our briefing, I'd ask the question, how much of that traffic, that 70 million passenger load originates in Denver? I don't know that there's a way for us. Do you mean Denver as opposed to Aurora or Commerce City or Brighton? I don't know if there's a way for us to track that. How about that goes that traverses phase one of Penn Yan Boulevard. That. I'm not sure I understand your question. If you're traveling out of Denver, you're either taking the airline or you're traversing that section of Montana. 70 million people, there are some that are coming into the airport via airplane and then leaving our airport by airplane. Okay. Original trips. Yeah. So is your question tonight from here. I'm going to. Look back to my team to see if. My understanding is 60% of 70 million. So it was originally projected that 40% would be originating in Denver. 65%, about 65% or 70 million. And my math is not great on the spot. So whatever number that. Is. And the other question I had that didn't have an answer was what is the design load for the commuter rail for the airline to how many what what number of passengers originating passengers could and workers could do the rail? What's the capacity of that rail? That's a great question. I do know that RTD has planned for future expansion of the number of cars that are on each truck. I don't know off the top of my head what our TDS projected a full maxed out capacity of the airline once they add in all the cars is. So I actually have the old vision zero letter and it was funny that I came across it as I'm cleaning out my desk, which talks about hires. I mean, very clearly states high speed skill. Obviously we don't have a lot of pedestrian traffic traversing the road out there, but we do we don't have a lot of congestion like we do at other airports where you're just you're in a in a crawl as you approach. So what I've been struggling with this entire time is you recall in our briefing is what is the problem that $93 million worth of money needs to be? Because if the city is using the congestion argument as a mode shift, you know, argument in the city, why would widening the road, expediting the ease of travel via vehicle encourage greater use of the A-line? If you go on the line right now, there's not one, but there's one trough where the train runs and there's a whole nother trough there to essentially expand the capacity. Why aren't we using why? Why couldn't you? Is there some federal prohibition that prevents you from partnering with RTD to either reduce the cost of those trips, to encourage more people and more families to get out of their car and not pay for overnight parking, but to take the train ? Was that part of your analysis and why did that fail? So I think there are a couple questions for me to respond to. Their first, a big part there is congestion. So just because somebody hasn't anecdotally experienced it on their trip out to the airport, there are certainly times when Panya is backed up and is very heavy from a congestion standpoint. That being said, a large part of this project has to do with operational safety and traffic flow that involves the turnaround. Right now, if you've ever done, you know, the loop to come pick somebody up, there's a situation where you're having to cross multiple lanes of traffic and it's from a vehicle safety standpoint, it's not great. And a large part of this project addresses that issue in terms of partnering with our TD to increase capacity of the line. You talked about a little bit about dollars. And so I want to take this moment to say the FAA won't allow us to they allowed us to build the transit center. They allowed us to invest in 61st, and now we can't put further dollars into build out of the airline. So that's something that we the airports federally prohibited from doing at this point in terms of encouraging ridership. We are advocating every single day. We're working closely with Councilwoman Gilmer mayor's office, with RTD, with Dr. COG in figuring out ways to reduce, especially employees. We have 35,000 people working out at the airport, especially in encouraging them to use our TD and figuring out what those barriers are to ridership and how we might be able to act as an advocate and a partner in reducing those barriers. Thank you. I am deeply concerned that the airport is once again maybe missing the big picture here, which is that you're expanding and widening and fixing the area closest to the airport, which would somehow encourage more traffic, but that the bulk of our congestion problems on PIA are actually from I-70 to Jackson Gap. But you're doing you're spending $93 million on the on the part. That's not that. So and the $93 million, as I said, it includes an Uber and Lyft and Taxi lot with an associated building. It includes changing the interchange at Jackson Gap and includes rerouting traffic to and from the airport, including one lane that's dedicated for bus travel into the airport. And so it's not I think calling it simply a widening project is just. Join us. You understand encouraging Uber and Lyft and simplifying that again is counterproductive to the investment that you have already made at Penn Station and at the transit center. I think our goal is to encourage multiple different forms of transportation. I think Uber and Lyft offer a great opportunity, especially if you're using a carpool option within Uber and Lyft to reduce traffic counts and to encourage multiple forms of transportation access to the airport. But neither one of those companies provide the same level of worker protection as are organized labor in the taxi companies. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Espinosa, Councilwoman Gilmore. Thank you, President Clark. Rachel, could you talk a little bit more about the I guess, the research or when, you know, there's a phase two that's associated, assuming that this gets through, but that split between tourism or, you know, folks that are actually Denver residents or Colorado residents, that transit might work for them. Could you talk a little bit about did you have those those splits so that we could get a better idea of what the congestion might be looking forward? Because we know that it's congested at certain times of the day. But as you continue to uptick on your passenger counts, we might very well get to a place where it's bumper to bumper congestion. No, I think that's a great point. And it's really important when we're making any sort of decision at the airport, especially one of this magnitude or future decisions, long pina that we're equipped with as much information and data as possible. So I think leading up to this, we have done a number of studies in terms of traffic on PDA, including studies with surrounding jurisdictions to look at which traffic counts are originating at the airport or traveling to the airport and which are merely passing through, which I think will only increase as neighborhoods around the airport build out . That's something we're we're constantly studying. We're also studying, like I said, how our employees are getting to work and what works best for them. And I think that'll be a really big component as the airport grows and our employee base grows is really encouraging. Figuring out, like I said, what the barrier to transit or car sharing or Vanderpool may be for our employees and what the airport can leverage to remove those barriers. And then my last question regarding this phase one, I you know, Councilman Espinosa touched on it a little bit, but I want you to be very clear so that there is no mistake. You know, talk a little bit about the FAA and the restrictions around a diversion of revenue. Sure. So all the commercial airports in the United States are built with federal dollars. And so the FAA has strict requirements on what we can and cannot use airport dollars for. As those of you on council are very familiar with, but I know this is new to a lot of members of the public. The airport is an enterprise fund within the city and county of Denver and airport dollars have to go to airport uses. Any use outside of airport use is barred by the FAA. So those include community benefits. Those include any other type of investment within the city. I think sometimes folks look at investment at the airport and wonder, why can't that money go downtown or go to different communities? And it's because the federal government, through the FAA, prohibits use of any revenue for airport revenue being diverted to other uses. Great. Thank you. Thank you, President Clark. Thank you, Councilwoman Gilmore. Councilman Cashman, if you're okay, I'd like to ask a few before I get back to. Okay. I want to first thank Denver Street's partnership for for pushing this issue and shining a light on this. I think we're all adjusting to having new plan and new blueprint. And what does that mean and how do we look and having a new way of talking about growth and talking about our roads in particular. And so I also want to thank you guys for being willing to engage in this conversation, especially because Panya is a street like no other in the city and county of Denver that it falls under. It really is seen by the federal government as your driveway, not as a city street in the way that many of us think about it. But at the same time, every, you know, car trip that uses pioneer originates or ends somewhere in our street network. And as we are trying to provide real alternatives and options for people to choose, it's a key component for that. So it's an interesting balancing act that we're doing here. But in my conversations with the partnership and with the community, there are some things that I think are important to get on the record that hopefully are easy things to commit to, or maybe not, but like to ask them and see if, you know, don't need to get in deep. But just some things that maybe you can commit to that I think will help them representing the mobility community feel better about projects moving forward beyond this one. So can you guys commit to studying how to accommodate future travel demand through non-core modes and doing some real deep dove studying into how to do that? Absolutely. And then real estate, which is a division of the airport, is actually in the process of undergoing a transportation study starting now that will evaluate. They are very committed to modern multimodal transportation as we look at building out more parts of the airport land. And so I think we can absolutely commit to to studying those options. And how about committing to I think part of the frustration was a feeling that there wasn't a lot of engagement and transparency within, again, this world of all the different worlds that you guys operate in. And so can you make a commitment to greater transparency, engagement of the community in developing the plans, especially these plans when it comes to mobility that do impact the. Rest of our street. Grid and the broader community? Absolutely. I said to Councilman Cashman earlier today, I think a commitment to further public engagement is always a great thing. You know, we sort of had our heads on this project deep into the workforce component and thought through the mobility and transit conversation, but didn't engage that conversation early on. And this was a great reminder, to be sure to loop in all stakeholders early in the process. And the Denver Streets Partnership, who represent a broad slice of our community. Can you commit specifically to working to with them to ensure that multimodal transportation is adequately incorporated into future plans for transportation infrastructure. At the airport? Yes. So we we have been and will continue to be committed to forward thinking when it comes to transportation and mobility options. We're working on a number of initiatives right now, and I always love smart people in the room as we try to tackle tackle those issues at the airport and as a city, we encourage, you know , Dan is very committed to these issues. It's a it's a priority of ours to be advancing transit and multimodal options at the airport. And, you know, we encourage, you know, other agencies, other projects to be pushing this issue as well, to be, like you said, in line with Blueprint Denver and what it calls for. Great and change. Back to something that you talked about a couple of times, this Uber Lyft taxi kind of infrastructure. But as I think has been pointed out, not every ride in a car share is the same. I can call a car share and I can write all by myself. That's the same as a single occupancy vehicle, even though there's two of us in there. But a lot of the technology is moving towards a pooling where you ride with multiple people, which is a carpool of sorts, and does require fewer cars to move more people. Do you currently collect data from those companies on what percent of rides to the airport are pooled rides and carpool versus essentially an SUV ride share? And if you don't, can you commit to attempting to work with the companies to get some data on that, to really understand if we're building out infrastructure that further encourages that mode ? Should that mode be really classified as savvy travel or as pool travel? Sure. So we do collect data today from the ride share companies. I will say that I do think as somebody who was car less for six or seven years of the past decade, that while I may have taken an Uber out to the airport prior to the airline being built, that option, while it was a single occupancy vehicle ride for me out there, allowed me in every other commute in the city to not be in a car. So I think we can collect that data. It doesn't tell the full, full picture. And like I said earlier, I think having a wide menu of options for how you can get to and from the airport really encourages, you know, all these goals that we're talking about. Great. And I apologize. A bunch of people have gotten in line. I thought it was just Councilman Cashman I was going to when I got done. So I'm going to get to a few other people. But I will also say that as someone who has converted and exclusively uses the train to get to the airport, which is a phenomenal asset that we have, that I thank you for your investment in that infrastructure and share a little bit of the fear that as we look at other investments, that we don't do something that leads to a reduction of service, that we're doing things that lead to better service in that line, because I think it's an amazing way to get people to and from the airport. Councilman Flynn. Thank you. Mr. President, I wanted to bring a few things out to light. Just briefly, Rachel. It's true, isn't it, that the airport, when it built a transit station for the airline, built the platform for the ultimate build out of eight cars? That's correct. So the airport did prepare for the ultimate build out already? We did. And we also built future proofed that stop so that there could be a people mover attached to their on the east entry on the east side as well. I don't know how you're going to get through the that the Xbox there but that's that's a whole other story. But the fact is that RTD is already running its MAX service to the airport. Is that not true? Because they are. They have started four car trains in within the past six months. The trains that run throughout the day are four car trains, not the two car trains that they open with. That is true. Correct. Okay. And the fact is that RTD built all the other station platforms along the line only to accommodate for cars. They did not build to eight car platforms. That's a great question for our team. And I know you're the resident outdoor expert. So I. I worked on the I worked on the project and yes, we built only four, four car platforms. It will take years before the airline is ready to handle eight car trains, but the airport already is preparing for that. The only other thing I wanted to bring out is that you mention a dedicated bus lane as part of this expansion. And I want to remind folks that expanding the highway is not just for single occupant vehicles. Busses use that. Not everybody that rides RTD rides the train. The the train, as I mentioned in our hour memorial. I'm sorry, in our testimonial. Councilman Lopez. Pardon me. Is the east is the east corridor and it serves from Union Station to the airport. But for folks going to from Boulder or from Commerce City, the A-line is probably not their transit of choice if they were to take transit. So we need to have that roadway prepared to accommodate multiple, multiple modes. And I would dare guess I don't have the figures, but I would dare to assert with the privilege of taking it back if somebody proved me wrong that Panya Boulevard is probably one of the most heavily mowed, split or mode shared streets in the metropolitan area. When you talk about the mountain shuttles, you have a ski area shuttles, the hotel shuttles, even the rental bus shuttles that only go to Jackson Gap. So expanding that roadway does help preserve the efficiency of our of our other modes other than single occupant vehicles. All that is true, correct? All of that is true. Okay. That's why. Mr. President. Thank you. Councilman Flynn. Councilman Brooks. You know what? I had a whole diatribe that I was going to try and get to. Council President, you got into most of the details that I want to do. And Rachel and I got a chance to talk earlier today. And and I would just say it was just an opportunity missed in committee when we were discussing this about outreach, about an analysis when we're talking about these type of things. And that's why we're here today. And I think if we can get to some of those commitments in the future, I think we're going to have a total different, you know, outcome, especially when it comes here to the floor. I think for for anyone in Denver who is just thinking that we're going to widen roads without an analysis of a multi-modal approach. Those days are gone. And so that's what we're we're doing and that's what you're hearing from the community. And I'm glad that where we are changing kind of the way we do business in the city. Thank you, Councilman Brooks. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. Rachel, I just wanted to ask a question about the area from Jackson Gap to I-70. That's a whole separate project that she has partnered with Dan on looking at how to address non airport traffic. Can you just sort of give us an update of number one where that's at in the process? And number two, that that will include an environmental impact statement, which is a whole community input process. That's part of that. Church. Hey, Councilman George Merritt with the airport. Thanks a lot. It's a great question. And your you're about on it. So now it's going back to Councilman Espinoza's question about why we're doing this part now versus the other part and to diversion of revenue in 2010, during a letter exchange that had to do with Tower Road on ramp going towards I-70. The FAA wrote us a letter and said a couple of things. One, you need to expand Panya Boulevard. Two, because now so much local traffic uses that you're no longer allowed to pay for it because it's a division of revenue. So we spent several years doing this analysis, and in 2016 we did a big lobbying effort. And what we worked out with the FAA was that from we basically. Bifurcated Penn Boulevard and from 472 I-70. We are now they have allowed us to pay for about 75% of the expansion and maintenance on that section of the highway. Pro-rated to our traffic on the road. So about 25% roughly. If you spread it out from 470 down, the. I-70. Is commuter traffic. This goes back to Penn Boulevard being, frankly, a unique roadway across the country. So we will at some point. Need some. Other funding to fill that 25% gap, be that highway grant, be that, you know, some other form of revenue. The FAA has said you can't pay for 100% of that. So that's where our partnership with Sit were with sit on. And Dr. Carr will come in when it comes time to do that. We first have to fill in that 25% gap for us to do that funding. We can pay for 100% of the work from 470 into the terminal because if you're that far down Penn Boulevard, you're coming to the airport and we can. Pay for 100% of that. Do we have Adams County committing to participate in that cost sharing with. You know, we passed. The hat and we you're not going to believe it. But it was a little a little reluctant to come forward with some with which. We know what percentage of that traffic comes back and forth from. ADAMS Our partners, you know, we serve the state of Colorado in the metro area, and that's that's part of the region. You know, we want to be driving this conversation not only in Denver. Right. But we are let's I mean, recognize where we are. We want to be able to to to help facilitate a conversation about mobility across the region. We are, you know, on the other side of a 25 square mile. Wildlife refuge from. Denver. And, you know, we are in a neighborhood with surrounded by Aurora and Commerce City and Brighton and Adams County. So, you know something. There. So the bottom line is we're not there yet in terms of having funding, being ready with any kind of project that is anywhere near an environmental impact statement for any potential expansion of Penn Boulevard from 472 I-70. We're not there. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Ortega, Councilman Cashman, thank you for your patience. Do you have anything you'd like to propose? Yeah, just one last question. And if the people coming to and from the airport don't just come from the metro area, but all over the region, are you working with the mountain towns, I mean, other communities this spring shy and on how we might better utilize mass transit to to to and from those destinations. That's a great question. I don't know historically what the airport has done. I can say that is part of our conversation with RTD and Dr. COG in terms of how we're moving employees. We ran the zip codes for everybody that works at the airport to try and figure out where folks are coming from and what might be the best tool for them to get to and from the airport. And there are actually a lot of people that work at the airport that live up in the mountains, that live in Wyoming. And that opened the door to, you know, not only are there employees, but there are travelers, to your point, that may need different options . And we've been having that conversation with Dr. COG, who actually has a lot of programs for getting folks from those areas to the airport. And so we're in ongoing conversations with Dr. COG about what the right fit for each community might be. Okay. And in full disclosure, you have agreed Dan has agreed to an ongoing substantive dialog with with the Street's partnership to continue digging into these critical issues of mobility. Absolutely. You know, Denver. Values our Denver Street Partnership's values. We think we're very much aligned. And and as I said, we welcome the opportunity to have more creative, smart people in the room as we try to tackle what are sometimes difficult and complex issues around mobility. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.