Pinyon has been involved in the evolution of the Colfax Avenue transportation corridor since 2012. We led the environmental task for the Colfax Corridor Connections Project, a City and County of Denver (CCD) project with Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Regional Transportation District (RTD), and City of Aurora (Aurora) involvement. Pinyon led the environmental task of the Alternatives Analysis that identified the section of Colfax Avenue between Broadway and Syracuse Street as a 4.7-mile-long center-running bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor as the preferred design alternative. That study screened out alternate routes and other technologies and aimed to move people more efficiently and to improve traffic flow and rider and pedestrian safety along RTD’s high volume 15/15L bus service route.
In 2020, Pinyon was retained to complete environmental and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) tasks for the FTA’s Categorical Exclusion (CE). Pinyon led resource evaluations for key environmental resources within the corridor. Most notably, Pinyon completed an extensive review for historic resources, which identified over 400 known and potentially eligible properties within the corridor (including three segments of Colfax Avenue itself). The evaluation of the Project impacts on eligible or “treat as eligible” historic resources resulted in a finding of a visual Adverse Effect to historic properties adjacent to the proposed station improvements on Colfax Avenue. Through extensive coordination with the project team, State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and consulting parties, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was reached identifying mitigation to historic properties, as well as historic elements such as brick-lined sewers, streetcar track remnants, and terra cotta name plates. During final design, Pinyon developed environmental specifications for the construction bid package to cover contractor requirements related to hazardous materials, biological resources, cultural resources, vibration, and noise.
