Denver will spend $15 million to study how Peña Boulevard could be widened in hopes of accommodating more traffic to the airport after the City Council on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a five-year contract.
The contract, with Lakewood-based Peak Consulting, will consider ways to widen the road west of E-470 as well as potential environmental impacts. The study, a requirement under the federal National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, is a precursor to an eventual construction project on the corridor.
The proposal highlighted differences among council members, some of whom see the widening as an intuitive step to ease congestion while others say widening roads doesn’t improve the problem in the long term.
With a 9-2 vote, support for advancing the project grew from a closer 7-6 vote on funding a year ago. Several council members who had opposed studying the widening supported the concept Tuesday.
“I have been going back and forth on this,” Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez said. “I agree that expanding the highway doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. … I am also concerned about what this means for residents in that area.”
She added that the council will still have a chance to vote on whether to approve any widening project — which would likely cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars — after the study is complete. While Gonzales-Gutierrez voted against a related matter in 2024, she voted in support of the study Tuesday.
Council members Paul Kashmann and Darrell Watson, who also had voted against it in the past, voted in favor, too. Council members Amanda Sandoval, Kevin Flynn, Jamie Torres, Amanda Sawyer, Flor Alvidrez and Stacie Gilmore all supported the 2024 measure and the one approved Tuesday.
Several council members spoke about the importance of improving the highway — not just for employees and travelers headed to Denver International Airport, but also for the residents who live nearby and use it for many reasons.
“For me and my neighbors, it’s our lifeline,” said Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore, who represents neighborhoods around Peña Boulevard.
Councilwomen Sarah Parady and Shontel Lewis have voted against advancing the project both times. On Tuesday, they said they opposed the contract because it wouldn’t include a study of ways to boost transit ridership on the A-Line, a commuter-rail train that runs from Union Station to Denver International Airport.
“These investments, or some combination of them, could allow Denver to escape the seemingly endless cycle of highway expansions that will inevitably fill up with more traffic,” she said.
Flynn, for his part, said he would like to see the A-Line studied separately.
The Peña Boulevard study process will include public engagement, scoping, analysis of alternatives, environmental effects and possible mitigation. Peak Consulting’s team will also perform some design work under the contract. An airport official said earlier that the process was expected to take less than the maximum five years.
Councilwoman Diana Romero Campbell abstained from the vote, citing that a family member works for one of the team’s subcontractors. Councilman Chris Hinds was absent Tuesday.
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