Sunday, November 14 - 9:00am - 5:00pm
Pre-Conference Field Trip:
Challenges of the Colorado Rockies
Interstate 70 Mountain Corridor featuring the Glenwood Canyon
Additional ticket required: $82 per person including transportation and
a boxed lunch
Interstate 70 is the gateway of the Rocky Mountains leaving west from Denver.
Serving as the primary access to summer and winter outdoor recreation, the highway leaves Denver, the Mile High City, and meanders up canyons and ridges nearly 6,000 feet as it passes through the continental divide in the 1.8-mile-long Eisenhower Johnson Memorial Tunnel at an elevation of 11,000 feet. With daily traffic exceeding an average 32,000 trips per day most of it focused around weekends, the highway co-exists within miles of USFS easement. The route offers many scenic views of the Rockies as it continues over Vail Pass and through the spectacular Glenwood Canyon to Glenwood Springs. The challenges of building, maintaining and operating this key highway will be presented throughout the day. Following this tour you will have a great appreciation how the Colorado Department of Transportation has addressed the engineering, environmental, and social challenges of Interstate 70 - the backbone of the Colorado Rockies.
Key issues and highway segments will include:
- Context Sensitive Designs on I-70
- Status of the CDOT/FHWA Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
- Future transportation expansion plans and vision
- The Interstate 70 Coalition and collaborative efforts
- Tour of the Eisenhower Johnson Memorial Tunnel
- Vail Pass Segment of I-70
- Concrete colored to blend into the natural palette
- Contour grading and boulder placement directed by landscape architects
- Extensive renegotiation and stream reconstruction
- The Magnificent Glenwood Canyon Segment of I-70
- Recipient of the 1994 ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award
- Recognized today as the "Gold Standard" for context sensitive solutions in
highway engineering
- General theme to "tread lightly" in the canyon
- Soaring viaducts in east end of canyon, and terrace and alignment in the south end
- Winter maintenance challenges including traction control and clean-up and impacts to adjacent streams
Tuesday, November 16 - 1:00pm - 5:00pm
Conference Field Trip:
I-25 HOT Lanes, US 36 and Boulder Sustainable Improvements
Additional ticket required: $20 per person
This bus tour will begin from the conference hotel in Denver and will travel first through the I-25 HOV lanes, which have been converted to Express HOT/HOV lanes. The bus will traverse these lanes as they connect to US 36, which is in early stages of being converted from a 1950's highway to a sustainable corridor for the future. Hear how a coalition of governments and the private sector is incrementally implementing managed lanes that will support bus rapid transit (BRT), carpooling, and paying single-occupant drivers. With the addition of the US 36 bikeway, this truly "green" regional corridor will connect communities and their diverse economic centers with many convenient travel choices. The bus tour then approaches the Boulder Valley from the scenic overlook at Davidson Mesa with its dramatic Rocky Mountain backdrop. Continuing to enter Boulder on US 36 (28th Street), see how a classic auto-oriented arterial has been converted into a "complete street" creating walking and bicycling access to the future BRT, complemented with local artists' influences on public infrastructure. A winner of the FHWA's inaugural Exemplary Human Environment Initiative Awards, 28th Street provides a travel time advantage for transit, water-wise landscaping, and taming of a hostile suburban arterial. After viewing 28th Street, head toward downtown Boulder where you'll see Boulder's first and model "complete street," Broadway, which serves the University of Colorado and Boulder’s historic downtown. See bicyclists, pedestrians, SKIP, and HOP transit services that connect a mix of land uses. After viewing Broadway, the tour will stop downtown for a quick debrief, question and answer session, and opportunity to see before and after photos. Finally before returning to Denver, participants will have some free time to walk along the Boulder Creek Path and/or take in the Pearl Street Mall, a successful, outdoor pedestrian mall with shops, restaurants, and local charm.
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