Hey Denver, it's time for this biweekly meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee starting now.

Good afternoon.

My name is Chantelus, and I chair the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Today is December 17th.

I'm excited to kick off our committee.

I'll do a round of introductions.

Councilman Cashmere, would you like to kick us off?

Yes, ma'am.

Paul Cash from South Denver District 6.

Rodalavitris, Lucky District 7.

Uh Kevin Flint, South West Denver District 2.

Just on a personal note, thinking of my late brother, Dennis today would have been 77 years old had he lived uh behind the age of 15.

I always think of my brother on this day.

Thank you.

Yeah, my condolences to you very much.

With that, we can kick it to the folks who are online.

Good afternoon.

Uh Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Thank you.

And we do have a few action items mostly from the Denver International Airport.

And so you all can do a round of introductions and kick off your presentation.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Phil Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport.

Jim Sterling, I'm the Chief Construction and Infrastructure Officer.

My name is Brandon Ganey, Senior Vice President of our Design Engineering and Construction Group.

And we will dive right in, Madam Chair, with uh Brandon Gain.

All right.

Well, uh, good afternoon, Madam Chair Lewis and 10 committee.

Appreciate you all having us here.

Uh we're really excited to present this important and one of a kind contract to you all today.

So uh in the summer of 2024, Den with Phil's initiation determined to uh define this contract as a as an SBE defined pool set aside contract for the C West procurement.

And so since then we have been working with Disbo to make that happen, and so we're really excited to bring that uh bring this to you today.

So just diving right in.

Um, the approval of this contract is what we're looking for.

It's uh a 70 million dollar contract over seven years with V1 consultants.

V1 is uh an SBE certified firm, also an MWBE certified firm.

Um the purpose of the contract is really to manage uh to be Denver's owner's rep, so to speak, but to manage um the Concourse Sea West expansion, uh which is uh our last remaining legacy concourse expansion at the airport, and it's 400,000 square feet and would provide 11 new aircraft gates.

So the scope of work includes a range of services, as I mentioned.

Um they will be representing uh Den and in terms of what that entails.

It's really uh program management, project management, environmental services, uh project controls, which is managing the financial aspects of the program, a lot of permitting management, uh quality assurance, and then stakeholder management.

So Vision 100 alignment, the two pillars that most closely align or track with this uh procurement and contract, is empowering our people.

As mentioned, uh V1 consultants is a certified SBE firm, and being a SBE firm, they're committed to supporting the growth of other SBE firms and promoting diversity and inclusion in the contracting to enhance our supplier base at Den.

So this does align with our vision 100 goal of cultivating talented and diverse workforce dedicated to the excellence of creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued.

It also hits our pillar of growing our infrastructure as mentioned.

Um this uh achieves or helps us achieve our goal of reaching a vision 100, which is reaching 100 million annual passengers at Den in the near future.

And really, these are the projects that will allow us to realize um our future, our future demands and and grow responsibly to serve 100 million passengers.

So, because of this large program, we were programming and putting this out to the community and to industry um since the summer of 2024.

So, in addition to taking flight, which is how we publicize our contracts at Den, we were able to do uh the taking flight initiative uh for five consecutive months to give a lot of uh opportunities for those to to learn more about this uh procurement opportunity.

Additionally, we held uh an industry forum in the summer of 2024 where this project um program and this opportunity was presented to all of those members at the forum, and that was hundreds of folks who came to town um worldwide, actually, uh, for that.

So we touted this piece uh to kind of kick off the the presentation, but want to kind of dive into it a little bit more.

So when we say this is a first of its kind, we really do think it's a first of its kind contract where we've taken a large program from any transit organization, Den being what we think is the first to set aside the contract for only certified SBE firms.

And so we had a very successful procurement.

Um we had uh a number of folks, a number of firms who proposed.

Uh we had one JV and other uh SBE firms, but this was essentially a the way that uh a defined pool works is that the prime contractor has to self-perform 30% of the work.

So that is how it starts.

Um in addition to that, Disbo added a sub-level goal for all of the subconsultants on that to uh aggregate an additional 15%.

So the prime contractor will self perform 30%, and that's a requirement.

And in addition to that 30%, the subconsultants that make up that team that are certified SBEs will uh they will um accommodate or not accommodate, but they will account for 15% of the remaining contract.

So essentially 45% of this contract will be uh dedicated to an SPE certified firm.

This slide just shows the other uh firms, the subconsultants that B1 is bringing on board who are certified SBEs.

And for this contract procurement, we did follow executive order eight, which requires a competitive selection process.

We issued the RFQ in early April, April 8th.

We started uh we actually shortlisted four firms on May 30th, held interviews that last summer or this past summer, and then made the uh award to the uh notice to apparent best proposing firm on August 5th of this year.

So V-1 Consultants is a known commodity at Den.

Um they've worked at the airport, our airport for over six years.

They also um are a certified small and minority owned business in addition um to the SBE set of set aside.

Um they also have very similar experience working at airports across the country and internationally, delivering projects and baggage handling systems, runways, facility improvements, and lounges at airports.

We touched on this briefly, but overall um what C West expansion will do for the airport in addition to helping us meet our vision 100, we'll be uh providing over 400,000 square feet of new space.

Um with that comes a lot of uh opportunities for good concessions and more concessions at the airport, eleven new aircraft gates will be accommodated, and then modern amenities to enhance the passenger experience.

You all may remember that our concourse expansion projects that were recently uh completed were certified lead.

Um, this one will also be certified lead goal minimum according to X0123 with the goal or the stretch goal of becoming platinum, like some of our other uh concourse expansions were uh certified earlier.

And that's really it.

Any questions on the program or the contract?

Uh thank Madam Chair.

Uh Brandon, um what projects have they they have an on-call contract with us from a couple years ago?

And I think they were a sub on someone else's contract that same year.

Uh what have they worked on at DIA?

So at DIA under our uh under contracts they have with us, um, they have worked on some of our runway rehabilitation work, annual runway rehabs.

Um, E1 is also a member, and Jim might be able to speak to this a little bit more of I believe the baggage handling system being managed by uh special projects under your portfolio.

Yeah, and they've done a lot of work for um airlines as well at our airport, but not contracted through us.

So they've done um I know they've managed some of uh United's work.

And they're based in Denver.

They're based in Denver.

Interesting name from an aviation aspect.

Uh V1 is the maximum speed at which a takeoff can be safely uh uh declined going down a runway before you're committed to taking off at a V2.

So I don't know.

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

It's good to know.

Yeah, thank you.

That's all.

Yeah, um probably missed this.

What's the extent of the expansion?

How many how many gates is that?

Sure, 11 new aircraft gates can be accommodated.

Yes, and this 70 million is to manage that work, correct?

What's the total expected cost of this?

The total current budget in our CIP program right now is 700 million dollars.

Old enough to remember when that was a lot of money.

That's too much.

Yeah, jump again.

Thank you.

No, I'm good.

Um who is taking these gates?

Do we have less hours for it?

We we have a waiting list for gates for these 11 gates, and so uh airlines want to grow.

Uh, and uh that waiting list is is what we have right now.

So I'm sorry, so will we manage the usage of the gates on a daily basis, or are they going to be leased to the Southwest uses C, correct?

Yeah, yeah.

They will likely be leased uh or I mean we're going to manage those and do a use and lease agreement with whoever um gets those gates next.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

I just have one um question for you.

Does the C expansion include the HVAC upgrades for the bathroom ventilation that we talked about?

Um, yeah, the legacy bathrooms.

Um that well, you want to go ahead and sure I'll so that's a separate project, Councilwoman Lewis.

So we have uh an entire program focused on what we're calling our legacy concourse restroom renewal program, and actually uh we expect to put that out for advertisement um before the end of this year.

And so that will be uh all the HVAC um higher circulation rates, all those will be incorporated in that project in that program.

This will include new restrooms, and those restrooms will have and be up to date just like the existing concourse expansion restrooms, um, but they will have the you know the I'll call it the the more frequent exhaust rates um in the restrooms.

Thank you.

Yeah, um I don't have any other questions.

No one does here.

Let me double check online.

I don't see anything online, so you all um thank you so much.

I have a motion to move this vote if you all don't have any questions.

I'll make motion seconds.

With that, you all can move on to your next open.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you, committee.

So we will uh swap out uh branding and bring up the other uh we also three folks, Danielle, Lisa, Scott.

I think we got enough seats here.

Um, okay, okay.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

So madam chair, we're gonna uh present uh Pena Boulevard E470.

Yeah, uh the work that we're doing there.

Hopefully you've seen that work as you come out of uh the merge, the new merge if you come out of uh especially the West uh side of terminal.

So uh you can introduce yourselves and dive in.

Alright, I'm Danielle Yearsley.

I'm a principal project manager with our engineering um design and construction group.

Hi, Lisa Lynn, good to see you again.

Principal Transportation Planner and manager of our GoToDen transportation demand management program.

Thanks for being here.

Alright, book, we're excited to be here today to talk to you about this contract, share a little bit about our NEPA project, and also have Lisa talk about.

GoToDone.

Our requested council action today is approval for an HG consult contract in the amount of $8,796,000.

It's a five-year term.

It's a professional design services contract that'll reconstruct aging roadway pavement, improve safety and reduce accidents, support access to the terminal, accommodate future passenger development, and growth.

This is a map of some of the major elements.

The black here is the Pena Boulevard reconstruction, the turquoise is an inbound ramp improvement, and the yellow is a multi-use trail.

The major elements include reconstruction of Pena Boulevard from E470 to Jackson Galp.

We'll maintain the same number of lanes, three in each direction.

We'll straighten the inbound curve from the A-line bridge to Gun Club Road.

That's where I originally bowed out, where the original toll plaza was.

We'll realign off rams at Gun Club Road, and we'll have some multi-use trail connections.

The other major improvements include outbound off-ramp improvements at Gun Club Road.

This orange area we're showing here is our West Approach development.

These ramps will really facilitate that.

And that area is just near the final approach where our cell phone lot is.

So we'll be able to provide some additional amenities to travelers to the airport.

HG Consult was selected to perform this engineering design services.

What's included in that is roadway design, drainage and water quality design, region structures, traffic engineering, lighting, utilities, ITS or intelligent transportation system, communications survey.

We'll do some geotech and material testing out there.

As part of Vision 100, this maintains our existing infrastructure.

It replaces the concrete that's out there, so we'll have new concrete that'll reduce maintenance.

It improves our ramp geometry, which will improve safety.

It supports our transportation demand management strategies by building the multi-use trail connections.

It'll remove eight acres of impervious area.

It'll straighten that inbound curve and align those roads to support development, especially that west development area.

The procurement was published on our DEN Commerce hub.

We had two outreach events, one in November of 2024 and one of December of 2024.

We received seven proposals.

Our business management services and bo reviewed all seven proposals and all seven were deemed responsive.

We shortlisted two HG consults and AECOM.

Interviews were held on the 2nd of September.

HG consult scored the highest, and we notified of them of that on October 10th.

HG Consult is a certified minority women business enterprise and a small business enterprise consultant.

They're a full service transportation and engineering planning design firm.

They have previous experience working at the airport and with our DOTI team here downtown and with the Colorado Department of Transportation.

They've delivered multiple complex roadway and bridge projects that are similar to this Pena project, and they have the design experience in roadway, bridge traffic, and design to successfully deliver this project.

The benefits of this project are during construction, we'll be able to maintain the same number of lanes, which will minimize impacts to the traveling public.

We'll replace that aging concrete.

So we'll have fewer emergency panel replacements, and that will have less impacts to travelers to and from the airport.

We'll straighten that inbound curve and also realign ramps to improve safety, and we'll have the multi-use trail that will facilitate connections to the airport.

So today we seek your approval for the contract for HG Consult for $8,796,000 for a five-year term.

This critical contract will deliver improvements to aging infrastructure along Pena Boulevard.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

But now we have a few folks in the queue, and I'll kick it off with Council Emmanuel.

Thank you so much, committee chair.

Um thank you for all the great information.

This is exciting, interesting.

Um I'm curious always about you know the level of service we're providing at the airport, and so I'm curious what the plan is while there's construction and how people are going to get in and out with this construction, potential construction.

Yeah, so we'll definitely plan that.

And so one of the things that is really nice is that we have space out there to maintain all the existing lanes we have, so we wouldn't have any sort of disruption to the traffic lanes going through there and carefully plan those closures to minimize impacts.

Great.

And then I know you mentioned the cell phone lot.

Is that going to be impacted at all?

The cell phone lot won't be impacted.

Okay, great.

It's just near there.

Um how will these design changes affect uh the ride share and rental car car users and drop-offs?

They really won't.

Um they'll have the same access, so they'll won't have impacts to them.

Okay, and then are there any specific improvements for stormwater management and reduction of impervious surfaces?

So we are taking out that impervious area that's in the median right now where that old pool plaza was.

So that'll improve that, and then water quality will be something that we'll look at during design to match with our water quality master plan.

Okay, thank you.

That's all I have to do.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I'd like to welcome Councilmember Gilmar online, and then with that, Councilman uh Flynn, can you take your questions?

Thank you, Chairman.

Um, having a little confusion trying to understand slide three in the detail at the gun club road.

Uh so what we're doing is we're eliminating the uh uh the off ramp right now at gun club, or is there an off ramp?

There is an off-ramp at gun club.

So we're eliminating that, an existing one, and but we're making people who want to go to that area that that's a gas station and restaurant, stuff like that, and we're making them go a big you know 270-degree loop around 78th Avenue and then over to gun club and then to go south if they want to.

Uh it's just seems a little confusing.

Yeah, and I think it the advantage it seems to me is we're getting rid of a signalized intersection at gun club on the north side of Penya.

So that's always good to not have uh possible crash locations, but uh it's a long way around.

So, what's the amount of traffic we expect to be using that ramp?

Okay, yeah, go ahead.

The existing rim takes you right into that development.

Yes, so what we're proposing if you go to the next slide, we're actually getting rid of that ramp, and there will be an intersection on gun club.

So it will make it much better there.

Because right now, all the traffic that is exiting would have to go through that development.

Right.

So this will facilitate a better use of that area.

Okay.

I never get off there, so I that that's thank you for the clarification.

Uh I think it's probably good that we're straightening out the curve on inbound where the uh toll plaza used to be, but it raises a question.

Uh I remember the morning of 9-11.

I remember going out there to cover the closure at the airport, and uh having that toll plaza there provided the perfect location to prov close off access to the airport when we needed to.

If there were a need to close off access to the airport, where would we do that?

Um, is there infrastructure in place or would we simply just send police out there to block it?

Uh we we would have to look at that.

I mean, that's one way we could do it.

Um we remove the toll plaza uh for various reasons.

Uh we don't have tolls anymore.

Yeah, well, that's one.

But there was a lot of copper being still in out there too in that other end.

Yes.

Uh, and so that's that was a big one.

So we'll have to think about that.

But that is uh obviously an option to block it off with uh police cars or whatever.

Sure.

And it's the easiest one that it's something we need to have in place.

We need a procedure in place before anything like that were to happen again.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Councilman Cashman.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

How many miles is the pain uh the full corridor all the way from I 70 to the terminal is about 11 miles.

And are are we addressing that full corridor?

We are in like different pieces.

So right now we have our package 1A that's under construction, which is Jackson Gap to the terminal.

And then we have this segment, E470 to Jackson Gap.

And then Scott's going to talk to you about it, but from I-70 to E470 is our NEPA study.

So we're addressing the whole corridor just in three unique projects.

So in this phase, how much of that length are we addressing?

Oh, I should know this.

What about three miles?

Three miles.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Thanks, madam chair.

Thank you.

Councilman, obviously, back up.

Thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you for the utilization of small minority-owned businesses.

I think going above and beyond what the really extremely low goal that Disbo set for this is very meaningful.

So I just want to commend you on your work on that and taking that so seriously.

Thank you, Committee Chair.

That's it.

Those are all the questions.

Let me double check online.

Yeah, no questions.

Just to that point, I think it would be very good if uh Disbo briefed the council on the new change, the federal changes with the interim final agreement that impacts DBE goals.

So at some point the full council should be briefed on that, probably starting with uh this committee.

Maybe FINBIS committee.

I don't know.

We'll know if we don't know.

There's uh some significant changes that are coming.

I appreciate that already here, actually.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Um, with that, I don't see any more questions online.

Any questions um, I'll move it.

All second, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Planning, Councilwoman Albedrez.

Um, with that I have an understanding, feel that you have a few announcements.

Well, we have uh uh some more information items if we could.

You sure do this?

Um, two of them, I believe.

So we'll bring in uh Scott.

Off the bench.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Scott Morrissey, Senior Vice President for Sustainability at the airport.

Um we wanted to take this opportunity um to update everyone on our progress towards the National Environmental Policy Act review of the third um set of projects that Danielle just mentioned between I-70 and E-470.

And so you all likely remember um we brought this contract through city council earlier this year, and we wanted to make sure that um as we had opportunities like this, we gave you an update on where we are with the NEPA process.

Uh obviously um NEPA is getting a lot of attention at the federal level right now, but it remains a bedrock environmental law within the United States.

It is our opportunity when we have projects that have major federal actions to be able to evaluate fully vet the environmental effects of those projects and to have a public outreach uh process um to ensure that the public is well aware of what those environmental impacts may be.

Um, NEBA is a very long process.

I won't go through um the entire chart on the bottom because we spent so much time talking about it earlier this year, but there's many steps um within the NEPA process.

Where we are today is this stakeholder process and project scoping, which is going to get us to the ability to evaluate the alternatives that get developed through public engagement.

Um so this specific um place that we are at now, there's a couple of really key outcomes that we're trying to get to before we advance to the next level.

The first is that we are looking to develop and to validate a purpose and need statement.

This is what defines uh what the need of this project is, and then allows us to evaluate those alternatives in terms of their ability to meet the needs of the project and the needs of the community.

And from that, we're able to develop that larger set of alternatives based on the work that's already been done through the pain and master plan that was completed in 2024, so that we can again be able to evaluate each of those alternatives in terms of their ability to um uh to meet the needs of our community.

The specific activities that we are focused on right now is that stakeholder engagement, which includes both agency coordination, so the regulatory agencies that have um impact to this project, as well as the public engagement process that we've done through a number of different ways, direct interviews with interested stakeholders and organizations, public events that I'll talk about in a moment, as well as you know, some additional web tools that we've developed to try to get the widest possible range of opinions about where we should be moving forward.

The other part that's really important is because we do know the we do know the area associated with this project, even though we do not yet know what that final project is going to entail.

It does give us the opportunity to be able to expedite parts of the NEPA process by doing some of those environmental and ground surveys early to identify um what we might be facing depending on what that final project outcome is.

Based on where we are today, we um are really eager to get feedback from the community.

We have a number of different ways to do that.

Um we do have a website that's listed here that is already set up so that community members can come and get more information about um about this project.

Um we do have a survey that is public, um, that uh give people the opportunity to be able to review some of the project information and then to provide some initial input.

Um, but we are also planning some more formal events that are going to start just next month in January.

I now recognize this as 2025, but we mean 2026.

Um the first of those events is going to be a open house at Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center.

That's going to be on January 22nd.

Um, but we are also going to have a virtual open house that's going to open the week before that.

Everyone will be able to get the same information, have the same opportunity to provide that targeted um feedback in each of the different areas, regardless of whether they're able to be there physically at that in-person event.

Um, and so with that, that's the extent of our um NEPA update, but happy to answer any questions that anyone might have.

Councilwoman Abadress.

Thank you.

Um I am curious what is the difference between the uh outreach you've done and the outreach you're doing.

Is there a prioritization?

You know, I don't feel like I personally got communication of that, and I've been really adamant about asking for when there's opportunity for feedback to be informed, and so I'm curious about that.

Yeah, it's certainly not intended to um preclude any feedback, and there's gonna be a number of opportunities across the board.

Um, what has been done to this point has really just been um targeted to the regulatory agencies and some of those um community organizations that were part of the process earlier.

Um, again, we still we want to make sure that we get feedback from all of council.

We want to make sure we get from all community members as well as people who use um the existing roadway, and so we'll make sure that we have many opportunities over the next couple of months to be able to get that feedback.

And is there a prioritization on feedback like the feedback you've gotten is more important than the feedback you're getting, or how are you going to equalize different forms of feedback and different groups and different, not just groups, like I know you have the groups within your original group, but also community um groups and organizations that haven't been outreached yet.

Yeah, I would say it's it's just a matter of scheduling and when we're able to find those opportunities.

No implied prioritization, all of the feedback that we get is obviously gonna be critical important, critically important to the ultimate decision.

Okay, if if I could get a list of the organizations you've already outreached, that would be great.

You certainly can do.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So, why am I trying to go to that link?

And it says 404, not so I don't know if it's a fault in the uh and what's embedded in the presentation.

I'll try to type it in manually and go back on there at the top.

We will certainly get that look at and resolve just quickly.

Thank you.

It might just be the link on the slide.

That's embedded.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Sorry.

I'm not firing it 100% today.

I don't feel well.

I'm in an excruciating amount of things.

So you all do what y'all need to do and let me know when you're finished.

All right.

Well, that includes that information item, Madam Chair.

We're going to pray for you to get through this.

Okay.

Um the next and last official item is another information item.

Uh, as we do the NEPU process, the environmental process on what Scott just mentioned on Pena Boulevard.

We're doing something sort of in concert with that on the transit side.

So we have 20 transportation demand management recommendations that we're doing to increase ridership as well to the airport.

And so those 20 recommendations, quick briefing, very smart briefing on what we're doing on that TDM or transportation demand management program piece.

Ladies and gentlemen, Lisa, when you phil.

Hi, I'm really excited to talk to you today about uh GoTo Den.

First and foremost, transportation demand management is kind of a mouthful, and unless you're really embedded in the niche industry like we are, it doesn't mean a whole lot.

So we are branding this program as GoTo Den because we're hoping this is how folks can realize there are other ways on how they can go to Den besides driving by themselves.

First off, this slide kind of shows you a few different things.

First and foremost is our GoToDen logo.

We worked with a DBE locally to set up our branding, set up our logo.

You'll kind of see the theme and motif throughout this presentation, but the uh O's and the go and two kind of symbolize different types of wheels on modes.

So uh keep your eyes peeled as we go through this presentation.

Um next up there on the left side are this is uh maybe familiar figure here.

This is actually pulled from our transportation demand management plan.

Um that was part of our mobility study that got published in spring of 2024, which leads me to kind of revisiting our 2035 transportation uh sustainability goals.

Um, one of them is to increase our passenger transit usage by 10%.

Um, the other is to decrease our employee drive alone percentage by 10%.

Um, and then there's a QR code if you want to go and scan the uh transportation demand management plan from spring of 2024.

Um but I'm gonna read a little blurb here.

Um this is my elevator pitch from our DBE, so hopefully it's helpful.

Um GoTo Den is our new initiative encouraging people to think beyond solo driving to and from the airport.

We're partnering with Den employees, passengers, and visitors to provide access and incentives for choosing alternative wheels.

Rail, bus, carpools, van pools, even bikes and scooters.

The result can be a trip that's less stressful, more economical, and protects the environment.

As the GoToDen tagline says, it's way smarter.

Um what does GoToDen do with the GoToDEN program?

We are beginning to implement multiple strategies that make it easier and more affordable to access the airport without driving alone.

These include improving connections between transit modes, expanding micromobility infrastructure, and supporting shared ride options.

GoTo Den is designed to reduce congestion, lower emissions, and create a more seamless experience for our airport employees and travelers alike.

And with that, I am really excited to share some of the implementation that we've done thus far.

Um on the far, sorry, the left, yeah, left side is our transit screen.

Um these were installed earlier this year in spring, and it is a real-time transportation monitor.

Um, this particular one that we're piloting is located on level five, right by arrivals, so as our passengers um either meet their loved ones or get out from uh the escalators.

They'll see that there.

Um I will mention that back in our 2022 mobility study, uh, we did a survey of our passengers and asked them how they got to and from the airport, um, and in particular, if they didn't choose public transit, what was the reasoning why?

Um about a third of those passengers said the reason they didn't choose public transit was that they didn't know enough about it.

Um so this is a real-time transportation monitor that shows our passengers when the next train is, when the next buses are, um, when the C DANG, excuse me, CDOP bus staying services, um, as well as having a dynamic map of the Denver metro area, showcasing um estimated drive times, drive conditions.

Um, we're hoping that presenting all of this information in a dynamic and real-time environment helps our passengers make a maybe more informed decision on what they can do.

We are currently working on getting a QR code so that our passengers can scan that and have it loaded to their phone as well.

So really excited for the transit screen that's been installed.

As well as towards the middle there, we have our new bike and scooter racks.

These were also installed earlier this year in May.

We had gotten a lot of comments and feedbacks from our employees that they would love to take the train or bus, but they may not have a spot to put their bikes.

And actually, I will say, interestingly enough, between last spring and now, we learned that a good portion of Dent employees do use personal e-scooters.

So we also installed some scooter racks out there for some more secure bike and scooter storage.

This led us to our first bike to work day event back in June of this year.

We had over a hundred and ten attendees visit us, several first-time employees that were commuting by bikes.

So really looking forward to continuing to see the first and last mile connections grow and to provide that service to our passengers and employees.

Next up, I'm gonna talk a little bit about our employee commute pilot program.

This is a little bit threefold, and I will mention we are working very, very closely with the Denver Regional Council of Governments, also known as Dr.

Cog.

First one there is van pooling.

We're looking at utilizing Commute with Enterprise, who Dr.

Cog contracts with for van pooling locally.

These are shared vehicles that our employees would sign up for, paired in similar commutes and days of the week.

Second one is carpooling.

This would connect den employees with similar commutes.

We would be utilizing the Dr.

Cog Way to Go ride matching platform to help our employees pair one another and utilize their personal vehicles for carpooling.

Third one, which I'm really excited for, is our guaranteed ride home program.

Once again, this is an existing program within Dr.

Cog, but this provides transportation insurance.

Essentially, you get a free ride home via taxi, Uber or Lyft for employees who don't drive to work in case you have an emergency.

So if your child is ill, you probably don't have time to wait for the next train or bus or for your van pool to get home later in the day.

This would cover that taxi or Uber ride home in those emergency situations.

So really excited to have all three of those.

Want to share a little bit more about the benefits and how GoToDEN is supporting these three programs.

First one is touching on the van pool program.

So through GoToDEN, the airport will be funding 100% of the van pool for our employees through this first year.

That includes the vehicle rental, any tolls that are incurred, maintenance, as well as gas of these vehicles.

We're also evaluating the option for some dedicated premium parking spots in employee lots for these van poolers.

Second one for our carpoolers, we're looking at providing incentives for our employees who are being carpooling, as well as studying and looking at options for premium dedicated parking spots in those employee lots as well.

And then finally, for guaranteed ride home, we will also be funding that 100% through the first year for our tenant partners that are part of this.

Last strategy that I am going to touch on is our DEN Transit Market Study that is underway right now.

The goals of this study is to identify what transit service gaps and what underserved communities there might be.

This is to help evaluate what opportunities there might be to provide direct transit service right to DEN and explore the feasibility for an airport-sponsored bus that would serve our employees and also have the option of servicing our passengers.

This is actually borrowing an idea from San Francisco, where at SFO they did an employee shuttle study that resulted in a pilot program for 12 months.

They call it Go SFO, and this is a commuter bus shuttle for all workers at SFO.

It starts in the East Bay in the San Francisco area, and it is actually expanded to four different routes.

Something else that I'll mention is that SFO had a lot of challenges for housing affordability.

Their workforce was really struggling to get to and from work in a reasonable amount of time.

Public transit was not a meaningful uh reasonable option for them.

And in fact, some of those employees at SFO were experiencing homelessness as well.

So this commuter bus that SFO has stood up has been incredibly successful, providing that connection where transit may not be serving their employees.

So I will mention that we at Den are working right now with our consultant to better understand what the current and future demands might be, as well as exploring how we can provide that service to be more equitable for our disadvantaged employees.

To hopefully have a pilot at Den as well, resulting from the transit market study.

With that, I think I'll see what we have.

Thank you, committee chair.

So the first thing that I did was go to the airport website to see if there was a link to talk about how to get there.

And the link says parking and transportation, and it has a long list of things about parking, and then it has getting to and from, and it has a long, very confusing list of things that include go to den, which I just want to share is very confusing for the public to see.

And I don't think the public necessarily cares about our choreographs, uh, you know, plan.

I think they want to say, How do I get there?

You know, and parking should be one option that if I'm interested in that, I can click on.

But public transit should be the first.

And I think it would be helpful if we did actually say the best way to get here is public transit to get in and out of here, or our priority is what you're talking about.

That should be what this is because what this says to me is come park.

We have all these parking options.

We have a Denver Transit Center.

I don't know what that is, if I'm the general public, then it says go to Den, which isn't that what I'm clicking for if I'm clicking on parking and transportation, and then passenger pickup, that should definitely be on there.

Taxis, rental cars, ride shares, car sharing.

I think there should just be a separate button that says are you an employee?

Because then we have different programs.

So I just want to say for the general public looking at if I'm going to the website trying to figure out how to get there, all I first see is parking, parking, parking.

And so if we're really committed, I think our website should reflect that, and I just don't think it does right now.

So I just wanted to share that feedback.

The plan sounds great.

The plan sounds amazing, especially for the employees because I know the ridership amongst employees is so low, and I'm excited to see that number go up.

But for the general public looking at the website, I think we could do a lot better.

Thank you.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that feedback, and I think sometimes um things might get overlooked as I get deep into the weeds, so I really appreciate that feedback.

Um, we'll be working with our team to see how we can uh help reprioritize things on that website, maybe shuffle up.

Yeah, thank you.

And I just the go to den doesn't mean I don't know why I would click on go to den.

You know, that's a phrase or you know, a pitch, but it's not like helping me understand if I'm trying to figure out how to get to the airport, like any it really doesn't help anybody understand that.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

Good to know, thank you.

Yeah, committee chair.

Thanks.

Doesn't seem like we have any other questions.

Yeah, we're online.

Um, and so with that, you can lead into your announcement.

Yeah, well, thank you, madam chair.

Um, this is sort of an end of year ritual that we wanted to um uh to continue.

Uh, and this is our uh 2025 accomplishments.

Very quickly.

Um we reached uh substantial completion ahead of schedule on the Center of Equity and Excellence in Aviation.

Um the entire council got an invite to that on January 7th.

We hope to see you there.

But we've reached substantial completion on that facility ahead of schedule.

Of course, we opened uh the east security checkpoint, the new checkpoint under budget and about 10, well, about 10 million dollars under budget and ahead of schedule.

Um we reopened the bridge to concourse A.

Uh, you know the bridge was closed for a time.

We reopened that and of course we uh commenced work on the final phase of the Great Hall program, which is the south end of the airport, the hotel end.

We're well underway.

Um I predict we will finish that ahead of schedule as well.

Um for the first time ever uh we ranked as the number one domestic uh airport in the country.

Um and so that is a huge accomplishment.

Um we also ranked number one, uh, and that's not on the slide.

Uh green vehicle fleet in the nation.

So we're the number one green fleet in the nation, and we are the number one domestic destination uh airport in the nation in terms of non-stop flights.

Um every month this year we set um uh international passenger traffic records for every month, and of course, the uh uh we had three new international non-stop flights, Rome being one of those, uh as you know, um the uh we achieved uh zero discrepancies on our FAA safety certification uh inspection every year we have a safety certification inspection.

It's kind of important um, you know, for us to operate.

Uh we have to have that certification as airport.

Uh we have uh achieved zero discrepancies in seven out of the last nine years.

Uh and that is a huge testament to our operations team and uh everyone that works at the airport as well.

Um selected the program management teams uh for the consolidated rental car facility.

We brought up to this committee.

Thank you uh for your approval on that.

And of course, uh the second part of that bullet is the concourse C West expansion of the 11 gates, which um uh you just this committee just approved today, just uh a few minutes ago.

So thank you for that.

Uh and then we initiated the uh environmental process on uh the Penya Corridor uh that uh Scott Morrissey just presented from I-70 to E470.

So we're well underway.

We got that started.

Uh and then the last thing I want to introduce our new chief commercial officer, Mr.

Chris Herndon.

I think that's someone that you all might know.

Yeah, and so uh, so that concludes our presentation.

Thank you all for your support.

We hope to see you on January 7th at 10 a.m.

for the opening of the center.

Thank you also, Matt.

We just have one person at the queue, Councilman Flynn, thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh, the A Bridge opening now is post-security.

Yes.

But how is I haven't been out there since this all this happened?

So how do members of the public who don't go through screening get to the airport office building?

Have we have we built open the dedicated public corridor?

We're working on that now.

You want to be able to have to come in from the west side.

There is a corridor that takes you to the AOB, and that's been built on the bridge.

Yes, it's open right now.

Okay, is the art installation been moved?

Because that's kind of in the way where we wanted to put that, isn't it?

Yes, yes.

So it used to be right along the column line there.

And so we have moved it up where the AE's uh screening used to be.

It's a wide area.

And so we have installed our there.

Yeah.

Oh, okay, so that's a big wide open area now.

A wide open area, take a look.

Yeah, okay.

So the public, if they have an appointment to see Phil or Jim or anybody, they can access the AOB.

Oh, yes, correct.

Absolutely.

Signage is there, yeah.

Okay.

Um I think I had one more, but I forgot what it was.

Uh, Madam Chair.

Um, those are the only questions in the queue.

Thank you all for the multiple presentations and updates.

We have six items on consent.

No one has pulled any of those off.

And with that, we adjourn.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, sir.