Ken and I arrived at the LRT station festivities this morning on the VIP Train. Here is a video of our arrival. Lots of happy people. And they should be happy; today’s ceremony recognized a major accomplishment by Kiewit, RTD, DUSPA and all others who are associated with this massive project.
Here’s the band.
In case you missed Mayor Hancock’s remarks at the ceremony, here it is.
And finally, here’s a stroll up the new sidewalk on 16th Street near Chestnut Place.
This afternoon, the light rail station and the mall shuttle station look like business as usual. People, trains and buses are coming and going.
Sometime earlier today, Wewatta Street was shut down and traffic has been rerouted to the new Chestnut Place.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the party is over and it’s time to get back to work. Excavation continues behind Union Station, work on the bus station has resumed, etc, etc.
Thank you to Hunter Sydnor of Kiewit for inviting me to ride the train this morning.
Wow!!!!!!!!! So proud of my hometown. Can’t wait for the next big milestone in this project.
Notice the new icons for Light Rail (red), Bus (blue), and Commuter Rail (green). It will be interesting to see how they tie all of this together…
Have one nit to pick. Lots and lots (too many) traffic signals on Chestnut. Takes much longer for mall shuttle to navigate, especially that left turn into station. Hopefully traffic won’t be as much of an issue once everything is done.
chucolo, unfortunately, for the next year plus, Wewatta will be detoured through Chestnut, so that’s the way it is for now. But, once everything is finished, Chestnut will be mostly a local street serving just the adjacent buildings and making things easier for the mall shuttle.
It was great to see this long awaited facility! My only issue is that as far as I could tell there were no bike racks. I locked my bike to the railing near the ticket machine. What’s a bike commuter to do? Other than that, great job RTD!
Rob, all the bike facilities have yet to be installed. This is just the beginning. If you haven’t already, please check out our DUS bike facilities post at DenverUrbanism: http://denverurbanism.com/2011/08/denver-union-station-bicycle-facilities.html