OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Meeting: Mississippi Vision Zero and Alameda Lane Repurposing – Feb 18, 2026

Council CommitteesWednesday, February 18, 2026
BodyDenver, Colorado
SessionCouncil Committees
DateWednesday, February 18, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:38:22
Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

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

0:10

Join us for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee starting now.

0:23

Good afternoon.

0:24

My name is Chantel Luz, and welcome to the Transportation Infrastructure Committee.

0:28

Today is Wednesday, February 18th, 2026, and I'm honored to represent the constituents in District 8.

0:35

With that, I would love to do a round of introductions, and we can maybe start virtual if we have any folks online.

0:43

Not yet.

0:44

Okay.

0:44

I'll start with you, Councilman of Joseph.

0:46

Good afternoon, Flora Titres with Lucky District 7.

0:50

Good afternoon, Paul Cashman with Fortune at District 6.

0:57

Alright.

0:58

Good afternoon, Kevin Flynn's Southwest Numbers District 2.

1:01

Great, thank you.

1:02

And with that, we have an action item as well as a briefing.

1:06

And so we can get started with our first action item from Dottie.

1:09

You all can introduce your presentation yourselves and get started.

1:12

Thank you, Council Chair Lewis.

1:13

My name is Elena McCorder.

1:15

I'm Dottie's strategic advisor.

1:17

I'll be running through the Mississippi Vision Zero Project today.

1:21

And I have my colleague, Molly Lanfier joining us.

1:23

Molly, you want to introduce your speech?

1:25

Oh sure.

1:26

I am also with Dottie, the strategic strategic communications liaison, and I will be addressing some questions we received last time about the Alameda Lane Repurposing Project.

1:41

So together, I think you all know that we are your points of contact for all things communications around projects and programs at Dottie.

1:50

So we're excited to present some updates today around both the Mississippi Vision Zero Project as well as the Alameda Lane Repurposing Project.

1:57

Both are in Lucky District 7.

2:00

So, Councilmember Alvidrez, we appreciate your support and your feedback through this process.

2:05

Mississippi Vision Zero Project, this is resolution request 260121.

2:12

And today we'll run through kind of the project history and background, how we got to today, what the goals of that project are, and how we plan to uh implement safety enhancements along this corridor, and then timeline and next steps for what to expect in the community and on the ground.

2:30

Over on the right, you can see the project limits of the Mississippi Avenue Vision Zero Project, and we're talking about the Mississippi Corridor between Elliott Street and Quivas.

2:41

So this is between the larger intersections of Federal Boulevard and South Platte River Drive down here by Ruby Hill and Athmar Park.

2:51

So this project came out of the state's Safer Main Streets program.

2:57

So this was a state program to invest in creating pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure along commercial and residential corridors to create those vibrant communities across our city.

3:11

And so we applied for this grant back in January of 2020, almost a different world six years ago.

3:20

This corridor, this section of Mississippi Avenue, is on Denver's high injury network.

3:26

I know you all are aware, but the high injury network is the uh the roadways in Denver that have a disproportionate rate of serious bodily injuries and fatalities.

3:37

So we want to target safety improvements to mitigate some of those concerns and challenges.

3:44

As part of the grant application for the CDOT Safer Main Streets grant, we had to do an existing condition safety assessment where we looked at crash data along the corridor, traffic volumes and speeds, field observations of general behaviors, and really then tied that to proposed safety improvements that we thought could mitigate some of the top challenges that we saw, and then really tied that to what our anticipated safety outcomes are.

4:13

So we're gonna go through a little bit more of what each of those entails.

4:35

Really, this is the morning hours between 7 and 9 a.m., and then in the afternoon between 4 and 6 p.m.

4:42

What you'll see in this graphic here in these black boxes kind of in the middle along Zunai.

4:49

Westbound traffic volume is about 7500 on peak hours of the day.

4:57

Eastbound, it's a little under 6,000.

4:59

When you go further to the right there, closer to Quivas, the volumes are a little higher westbound at 7800 and a little higher eastbound as well at 6800.

5:12

What you'll see in the boxes just below there are the 80th percentile of speed that we saw.

5:19

So 85% of the people were going eastbound 27 miles per hour or less, westbound 29 miles per hour or less.

5:43

So 16 different intersections where we really wanted to take a close look at the interplay between pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicular traffic.

5:55

And then I also just you saw on there, just highlighting for you that we've got Goldrick Elementary and the Athmar Park public library right there as well, where we have a lot of pedestrian traffic on the corridor.

6:09

So what did the conditions outlook find?

6:13

First, if you look at the table on the bottom, in a four-year time span, there were a total of 109 crashes between Elliott and Quivas along Mississippi.

6:24

If you look at figure one here on the top right, the crash types from Elliott to Quivus, what we see is 45% of the crashes were broadside and sideswipe collisions.

6:37

So T-bones or side-to-side interactions between vehicles.

6:43

What we also saw in the bottom right pie chart is crash types focused at the intersections around Dale and Clay.

6:52

And there we saw again a high frequency of broadside crashes.

6:58

We also looked into a closer look at the pedestrian crashes on the corridor.

7:03

And what we found was that of the five pedestrian crashes, all five were in the vicinity of Raritan and Quivas, which are just one block apart from each other.

7:14

So it's a very high pedestrian crossing between the neighborhoods and the commercial hub of the community.

7:21

And three of those five pedestrian crosses were mid-block at unsignalized.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Transportation Safety█████████████████████████████████████████████59%
Community Engagement██████████████████24%
Engineering And Infrastructure███████████14%
Fiscal Sustainability██2%
Racial Equity1%
Summary of Proceedings

Denver Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Meeting – February 18, 2026

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of Denver City Council met on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, chaired by Councilwoman Chantel Luz (District 8). The committee considered an action item approving a $2.9 million contract for the Mississippi Vision Zero Project and received a briefing on the proposed Alameda Lane Repurposing demonstration project. Discussions focused on project delays, safety metrics, community engagement, and representation.

Discussion Items

Mississippi Vision Zero Project (Resolution 260121)

  • Presentation: Dotti staff (Elena McCorder, Molly Lanfier, Tigus Holloway) presented the project to improve safety on Mississippi Avenue from Elliott Street to Quivas Street. The project is funded by a CDOT Safer Main Streets grant and aims to reduce vehicle speeds, add raised medians, pedestrian refuge islands, bulb-outs, signal enhancements, and ADA-compliant curb ramps. Crash data from 109 crashes (2016–2020) showed 45% broadside/sideswipe, with five pedestrian crashes near Raritan and Quivas. Traffic volumes: westbound up to 7,800 (daily), eastbound up to 6,800 (daily). The project was delayed due to unsuccessful first bid, procurement hurdles, and grant extension. Construction is expected late April/May 2026 with a 365-day timeline.
  • Council Concerns: Councilwoman Alvidrez (District 7) expressed frustration over years-long delays and lack of community input continuity. Councilman Cashman requested detailed speed data and comparisons to Alameda corridor. Councilman Flynn questioned traffic data and construction costs. Councilwoman Gilmore asked about other delayed projects and ARPA fund usage. Councilman Hines linked the project to Vision Zero goals and Director Ford's 50% reduction target. Committee members noted the project should align with Vision Zero metrics. The committee moved the resolution to full council for approval.

Alameda Lane Repurposing Project Briefing

  • Presentation: Dotti outlined a follow-up plan including a working group meeting (February 19, 2026) to discuss a demonstration project. The demonstration would reduce travel lanes from four to two (one each way) on a section of Alameda Avenue (Emerson to Franklin) for about nine months, using temporary paint. Permanent safety improvements, such as a rapid flashing beacon at Franklin and improvements at Virginia and Downing, will proceed separately. The working group includes representatives from multiple organizations (e.g., West Wash Park, Maury Hill HOA, local schools). Metrics of success will be developed with community input.
  • Council Concerns: Councilwoman Alvidrez questioned the representation of Maury Hill HOA (outside project area) and the lack of full corridor testing. Councilman Cashman asked about cost and enforcement. Councilman Hines criticized the departure from the original stakeholder-recommended full lane reduction and noted the working group may not be representative. Councilman Flynn sought data from a previous failed road diet. Councilwoman Gilmore stressed the need for clear working group standards and equity. Committee Chair Luz expressed frustration with lack of specifics on procurement, design, and success metrics. No vote was taken; the briefing was informational.

Key Outcomes

  • Mississippi Vision Zero Project: The committee approved a motion to refer Resolution 260121 to the full City Council for a vote. The resolution authorizes a $2.9 million contract with Goodland Construction (with $2.1 million from CDOT grant and approximately $800,000 city match). Construction is targeted to start in late April/May 2026.
  • Alameda Lane Repurposing: No formal action was taken. Dotti committed to holding a working group meeting on February 19, 2026, and a subsequent public meeting. The demonstration project is planned for summer 2026 with data collection and community survey. Council members requested additional data, clarified representation, and success metrics. The project will return to committee for further updates.

Meeting Transcript

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 Chantel Luz, and welcome to the Transportation Infrastructure Committee. Today is Wednesday, February 18th, 2026, and I'm honored to represent the constituents in District 8. With that, I would love to do a round of introductions, and we can maybe start virtual if we have any folks online. Not yet. Okay. I'll start with you, Councilman of Joseph. Good afternoon, Flora Titres with Lucky District 7. Good afternoon, Paul Cashman with Fortune at District 6. Alright. Good afternoon, Kevin Flynn's Southwest Numbers District 2. Great, thank you. And with that, we have an action item as well as a briefing. And so we can get started with our first action item from Dottie. You all can introduce your presentation yourselves and get started. Thank you, Council Chair Lewis. My name is Elena McCorder. I'm Dottie's strategic advisor. I'll be running through the Mississippi Vision Zero Project today. And I have my colleague, Molly Lanfier joining us. Molly, you want to introduce your speech? Oh sure. I am also with Dottie, the strategic strategic communications liaison, and I will be addressing some questions we received last time about the Alameda Lane Repurposing Project. So together, I think you all know that we are your points of contact for all things communications around projects and programs at Dottie. So we're excited to present some updates today around both the Mississippi Vision Zero Project as well as the Alameda Lane Repurposing Project. Both are in Lucky District 7. So, Councilmember Alvidrez, we appreciate your support and your feedback through this process. Mississippi Vision Zero Project, this is resolution request 260121. And today we'll run through kind of the project history and background, how we got to today, what the goals of that project are, and how we plan to uh implement safety enhancements along this corridor, and then timeline and next steps for what to expect in the community and on the ground. Over on the right, you can see the project limits of the Mississippi Avenue Vision Zero Project, and we're talking about the Mississippi Corridor between Elliott Street and Quivas. So this is between the larger intersections of Federal Boulevard and South Platte River Drive down here by Ruby Hill and Athmar Park. So this project came out of the state's Safer Main Streets program. So this was a state program to invest in creating pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure along commercial and residential corridors to create those vibrant communities across our city. And so we applied for this grant back in January of 2020, almost a different world six years ago. This corridor, this section of Mississippi Avenue, is on Denver's high injury network. I know you all are aware, but the high injury network is the uh the roadways in Denver that have a disproportionate rate of serious bodily injuries and fatalities. So we want to target safety improvements to mitigate some of those concerns and challenges. As part of the grant application for the CDOT Safer Main Streets grant, we had to do an existing condition safety assessment where we looked at crash data along the corridor, traffic volumes and speeds, field observations of general behaviors, and really then tied that to proposed safety improvements that we thought could mitigate some of the top challenges that we saw, and then really tied that to what our anticipated safety outcomes are. So we're gonna go through a little bit more of what each of those entails. Really, this is the morning hours between 7 and 9 a.m., and then in the afternoon between 4 and 6 p.m. What you'll see in this graphic here in these black boxes kind of in the middle along Zunai. Westbound traffic volume is about 7500 on peak hours of the day. Eastbound, it's a little under 6,000. When you go further to the right there, closer to Quivas, the volumes are a little higher westbound at 7800 and a little higher eastbound as well at 6800. What you'll see in the boxes just below there are the 80th percentile of speed that we saw. So 85% of the people were going eastbound 27 miles per hour or less, westbound 29 miles per hour or less. So 16 different intersections where we really wanted to take a close look at the interplay between pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicular traffic. And then I also just you saw on there, just highlighting for you that we've got Goldrick Elementary and the Athmar Park public library right there as well, where we have a lot of pedestrian traffic on the corridor.

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