CONNECT
Good weather is forecast for Saturday so let’s get together for a tour of the Union Station project.
We will meet in front of the historic station at 17th & Wynkoop at about 9:50 AM. The tour will begin promptly at 10:00 AM and will conclude around 11:00 AM on the Millennium Bridge. Suggested donation is $10/person, and all proceeds go to the non-profit Union Station Advocates.
I will be conducting the tour while Ken is out of town. I hope to see you Saturday morning.
Here we go again. Digging the second half of the bus terminal has began this morning. Here is a photo of a familiar sight: a line of dump trucks, an excavator, and a bulldozer. As you can see in the photo, Kiewit started digging next to the historic station and will work toward the existing section of the terminal.
Also in the photo above, you can see that work has begun on removal of the canopy that is attached to the back of Union Station. The canopy offered protection for passengers waiting for buses that departed downtown via the HOV lane to Interstate 25.
In other news, the Traction Power Sub Station (TPSS) is being moved today to a new spot near the Union Gateway Bridge from underneath the Millennium Bridge. I know little about the function of the TPSS. But I do know that it has something to do with controlling movements of the light rail trains. The first of the following two photos shows where it was located on the concrete foundation that is barely visible under the bridge. The second photo shows it being hauled away on a flat bed trailer. It looks a bit like a big camper trailer.
Later this morning, I will get some street-level photos of today’s activities and post them to our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com.
At the end of the day today, all of the concrete will be poured for the bus terminal floor. Here is a photo of pouring the final section. About 15,000 cubic yards of concrete (1,500 truck loads) were needed to complete the job.
Here is a shot from the light rail station on Wewatta Street showing progress on the bus terminal walls. Eleven, 50 foot sections have been poured so far. As I mentioned previously, the wall is 19 feet high and two feet thick.
A new development today is the start of the plenum wall inside the bus terminal. In the center of the photo below, you can see the first form for that wall being placed to the left of the new, outside wall. The plenum is the conduit through which bus exhaust will be evacuated to the outdoors. I like to think of the process as exhausting the exhaust.
Last week, crews began working on cleaning up and landscaping the area bounded by the EPA building, 16th Street, Wewatta Street, and 15th Street. It is the area that, for a hundred years or so, was filled with railroad tracks. Those tracks were removed a few months ago. There is not much to see yet in the photo below. I will update you once the project starts to take shape.
Let’s take a look at progress on the light rail station. The photo below shows a grader working on the base for light rail tracks. Dirt (road base?) was hauled in yesterday to raise the ground surface by two to three feet. Then it was graded and compacted. I’ll be eager to tell you when they start laying tracks.
For more progress on the light rail station, see the photo below. Two handicap ramps have been started. This one is at the north end of the passenger platform.
Coming soon: an update on the temporary Amtrak terminal with photos from inside the building.
Please see our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com for more photos that I added this week.
In spite of appearances in the photo below, it is not a group of local dignitaries behind bars making little rocks out of big rocks. It also is not local authorities digging the next phase of the bus terminal by hand. It is a gathering of those responsible for converting a dream into the reality of the Denver Union Station Redevelopment Project. Credit was duly given to dozens of individuals who worked tirelessly and overcame every conceivable obstacle to design and fund this massive project. It is a photo of the “DUS Construction Celebration” event held at 1:30 today on the light rail platform behind the historic station. I’ll take a wild guess that about 100 people attended the event.
In other news, work continues on preparing concrete forms for the bus terminal walls. Kiewit expects to start pouring those walls later this week. The photo below shows workers in the shadows on the far left suspended from the top of the form and tying rebar. You can see other workers tying rebar at the top of the pillar in the foreground. The sheets of pre-assembled rebar laying flat on the concrete floor will be lifted into place along the walls. The walls will be 19 feet high and two feet thick. Each form is 50 feet long. The pillars are 12 feet high and will support the ceiling girders.
I’ve added several more photos to our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com.
Strada Flats (completed):
Pearl Street Victoriana (completed):
Quality Hill Townes (under construction):
Argonaut Liquors (site prep):
These four images have also been added to the new Capitol Hill page. That’s right, I’ve just upgraded Capitol Hill to the new color format. In addition, I’ve eliminated the portion of Capitol Hill east of Downing. Not only does that allow the Capitol Hill aerial photo to be presented at twice the scale, but there have been very few projects on that side of the district and I want to keep things focused closer to Downtown.
I’ve just completed an upgrade of the Highland and Prospect district pages, which join Jefferson Park, Auraria, Central Platte Valley, and Ballpark in having the new look. Like the CPV, I’ve broken Highland up into subareas which allows the aerial photos with the project locations to be at a much larger scale than before. While I’ve been upgrading these City Center district pages, I’ve also been adding updated construction photos, new projects, etc.
