Later this year, all of the passenger tracks will be removed from behind Union Station to enable digging of the bus box hole that will go very close to the back wall of the station structure. As shown in the photo below, three of the five tracks have already been removed and work has started on the fourth. At the current pace, the only tracks to remain past next week will be those used by Amtrak’s California Zephyr.
In anticipation of removing the final set of tracks (probably late-2010), work is in the earliest stages to construct temporary tracks for Amtrak as shown in the following photo taken from Park Avenue, looking toward Union Station. The elevated street on the right is Wewatta. The crossing, elevated street is the HOA lane to/from I-25.
Obviously, Amtrak’s passenger terminal will have to move out of Union Station once the tracks are relocated. The photo below shows the future site of the temporary station. A passenger parking lot will be built nearby. A pedestrian walkway will be constructed over Wewatta Street for passengers to get from the temporary station to the trains parked on the temporary tracks.
For plenty of additional photos, please see our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com.
I can’t help but think of Grant Park in Chicago as an excellent example of a city that reclaimed the space used by railroads by simply building a canopy over the top of the rail yards and turning them into some of the most admired park systems in the world. I wish Denver could do something similar.
What I’m most curious about right now is what is where this pedestrian walkway over Wewatta will exactly be and what is it going to look like? Will it be permanent?
At this point, I can answer only one of your questions. I’ve asked my contact at Kiewit for help with the others. The walkway will be temporary, but I believe that will be for about three years. It will be in use during Amtrak’s stay in the temporary station.
I wish they would have PERMANENTLY found a way to move Amtrak’s station so that all other local/commuter trains could use Union Station as a true hub… The many, many local commuters would make US a bustling place and support businesses there as in other major cities with a large central station. There are only 2 Amtrak trains a day–one coming/one going to California…not gonna provide much in the way of “hustle and bustle”. Oh well.
Going nuts. It is very hard to make sense of construction pictures without some sense of where the project is going and I just can’t get it in my head, despite having looked at the October 2009 pdf presentation and having seeing the construction up close from the 18th Street pedestrian bridge.
Is there some artist’s rendering that captures the entire construction area between the Platte River Valley area and LoDo in one perspective drawing (the sat view maps aren’t conveying the feel either)?
This is the best overall rendering of the site that I know of. http://denverunionstation.org/images/DUSPA_images/renderings/dus_transit_district_900_674.jpg
The bus box will be under the vertical area with trees that is in the center of the rendering. It will also extend under the train shed to the back of the station. The buildings, other than the train shed and the station, are part of the eventual private development that will happen sometime later. The current work is focused solely on the transportation portion of the redevelopment.
Please let me know if the rendering and this brief explanation answered some of your questions.
Rick, based on the site rendering, can you help me understand where the bus entrance and exit will be?
Thanks
JBK, I’m sorry it took me so long to notice your question. There are two entrances/exits, but they are hard to see in the rendering. Keep in mind that the bus box extends all the way from the back of the station to a point near the freight tracks.
You can see one entrance/exit if you follow 18th Street up in the rendering past the end of the station. Make a left turn. Notice the street appears to come to a dead end between the station and the train shed. That’s where the street goes underground to the box.
The second is at the other end of the bus box. Go back to 18th Street and continue up in the rendering. Hop over the passenger tracks, and pick up 18th Street again. Notice how it turns left around the last proposed building and comes to a dead end. It goes underground at that point.
So it’s going to take four years just to complete the light rail, the bus box, and the train shed? Without any other development until that stuff is done? Wow! That seems like a looooooong time.
So I guess that means the foundations for the buildings that are to sit atop the bus box will be “built in”, correct? Even though plans for those buildings do not exist yet?
Dana, some private development will probably get started before the transportation part of the project is completed. The two wing buildings on either side of the historic station are likely to be the first. In fact, Union Station Neighborhood Company (the private developer) has already announced details of the north wing building. See Ken’s two blogs on February 1, 2010 for details: https://denverinfill.com/page/5
It appears from the renderings that buildings will not be built on top of the bus box. However, the train shed, a pedestrian mall, and an extension of 17th Street will be on top of it.
I’m not bothered by Amtrak staying around Union Station, particularly if there’s some chance in the future of running some sort of regional rail service along the Front Range (doesn’t have to be high speed…would be nice just to have service from Pueblo to Cheyenne if there was a way to justify the cost.) If that kind of line could go in I think it would help increase the bustle downtown a bit and really solidify Denver as a regional transport hub. Future rail could follow as the economy picks up.
I completely agree that we should ship Amtrak out of Union Station. While there is space they can stay but the minute the station needs more tracks, ship them out. Their trains already interfere with throat operations.
Great job with the info and photo at 21st and Wewatta. Living at the Jack Kerouac Lofts, it’s good to know what’s coming down the pike.