1. Plan

  2. Community Engagement

  3. Design

  4. Build

  5. Complete

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Completion Date
2025
Current Phase
Design

Project Overview

The Downtown Boulder Station Gate Expansion Project will increase transit service capacity at the bus station and improve route efficiency and the transit rider experience. The project area is 14th Street between Canyon Boulevard and north of Arapahoe Avenue.

Improvements include:

  • Five new bus gates to accommodate existing and future transit services that stop and layover at the Downtown Boulder Station.
  • Wider sidewalks around bus gates and ADA improvements.
  • Pedestrian shelters, trash receptacles and bike racks.
  • Signage, striping and urban design treatments.
  • A new storm sewer manhole and replacement of drainage inlets.
  • New landscaping and trees to replace trees removed in conjunction with this project.

On-street parking will be eliminated in the project area to accommodate the improvements.

Downtown Boulder Station Expansion Final Design Schematic. Full long description on project page under header Final Design Graphic Long Description

View full design image. 

This is a text alternative to the Final Design Graphic. A graphic map of 14th Street left to right, Canyon Boulevard on the left and Arapahoe Avenue on the right. The project area includes three sawtooth bus gates and two parallel bus gates, curbs and gutter, sidewalk, curb ramps, driveway tie ins, landscaping, lighting, security camera, signage and striping, and associated work. Transit shelters at three of the new bus gates, trash receptacles, and bike racks. One of two access points for city parking lot at the southwest corner of 14th Street and Canyon Boulevard will be removed, a crosswalk connecting the west and east sides of 14th Street is pending driveway realignment. A potential driveway realignment on the east side of 14th Street is pending a temporary easement.

3d overview of the downtown boulder station expansion project highlighting canyon boulevard to arapahoe street

Related Improvements

Once the Downtown Boulder Gate Expansion Project is complete, the city is also planning related improvements, including:

  • Turn lane changes on Arapahoe Avenue.
  • A signal replacement at 14th Street and Canyon Boulevard.

Project Background

As of 2019, the Downtown Boulder Station serves nearly the same number of bus routes as Denver’s Union Station, but occupies less than one-eighth of Union Station’s space and has half the gate capacity. Downtown Boulder Station serves over 1,200 daily bus trips and over 3,300 passenger boardings with an estimated 420 passengers boarding buses at the station during rush hour. The majority of the daily bus trips and passenger demand is for regional transit routes. Station capacity needs are only expected to grow, particularly with the coming bus rapid transit (BRT) planned for along SH 119/Canyon (between downtown Boulder and Longmont) and along SH 7/Arapahoe between downtown Boulder and Brighton.

This project addresses the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG)’s Metro Vision focus areas, including improvements to the mobility infrastructure serving regional and local travel needs and increasing the reliability of the existing multimodal transportation network.

This project also supports our Transportation Master Plan goals, including reducing single-occupancy (SOV) mode share to 60 percent of work trips for non-residents and 20 percent of all trips for residents by 2030.

Funding

The $982,000 project budget breakdown is as follows:

  • $370,000 Denver Regional Council of Government (DRCOG) Subregional Share (40%)

  • $389,200 City of Boulder (40%)

  • $200,000 RTD (20%)

Downtown Boulder Station Study

The Downtown Boulder Station Expansion Project is a result of the larger Downtown Boulder Station Study that looked at how the relocation and redevelopment of Boulder's premier transit station could best serve the needs of current and future transit riders.

The city, in partnership with Boulder County, RTD and Via Mobility Services, identified the 1400 block of Canyon, originally identified in the 2007 FasTracks Local Optimization Facilities Study as a potential future site for Downtown Boulder Station.

The vision to relocate the downtown station is a long-term solution that could take 10-20 years to realize and would require funding from multiple sources. In the interim, the Downtown Boulder Station Improvements Project will provide additional capacity to the station on 14th Street south of Canyon Boulevard.

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