A $15 million contract to study and begin designing a potential widening of Peña Boulevard has put a spotlight on a longstanding fissure among Denver City Council members as they grapple with how to address the often-congested artery to Denver International Airport.

Ahead of a vote Tuesday, some on the council say the study is a necessary step in pursuing an intuitive solution — more lanes — for a worsening traffic problem. Others see the proposal as an expensive, dead-end deal that won’t thoroughly consider improving transit options.

“We don’t know what’s going to come of the study,” said Phil Washington, the CEO for the airport. “The study itself will reveal other alternatives that are possibilities. So all we’re saying is: Let’s do the study.”

If approved, the five-year contract with Lakewood-based Peak Consulting would be paid for out of DIA accounts. It would include an environmental review to meet federal requirements and some design work for the project.

DIA, where over 40,000 people work, has said for years that the city needs to find a way to address the ballooning congestion. The average daily traffic on the road has increased 80% between the airport’s opening in 1995 and 2023, from 75,000 vehicles to more than 136,000. That figure could exceed 186,000 vehicles before 2050, the airport has estimated.

Between 2016 and 2023, roughly 45% of 1,250 crashes along the road were read-end collisions, largely due to congestion, DIA data shows.

“I would ask that we push this through because it protects the safety of my community,” said Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore, who represents the communities around Peña Boulevard, during a committee meeting on the proposal. “Otherwise, you’re trapping us.”

DIA and the council are looking primarily at Peña west of E-470. East of the tollway, where it’s largely an airport-access road, DIA has been widening and rebuilding the road on its own in recent years.

Last year, Gilmore and six other council members approved an agreement for a $5 million state grant that, coupled with money from DIA, set aside $18.5 million for environmental studies and design of the widening, plus some other things. Six of the 13 council members, including Councilwoman Sarah Parady, voted against it.

Now the contract for studies and design work is bringing the issue back to the council.

Parady has said she won’t support the proposal unless it explicitly includes research into how to encourage more people to take the A-Line train, which runs from Union Station to DIA’s terminal.

“I feel like I’m in crazyland here, you guys,” Parady said during a March committee meeting. “The train runs along the road. We are dying of climate change. How are we not even going to study that?”

Is A-Line expansion a possibility?

Parady wants to see the airport examine things like safety concerns, public awareness of the train and possible changes to the A-line’s fares, frequency and infrastructure.

Scott Morrissey, the vice president of sustainability for the airport, responded that there wasn’t evidence that a transit-only solution could alleviate traffic.

The A-Line is one of the Regional Transportation District’s most-used rail lines, but it isn’t at capacity. RTD has suggested that it wouldn’t dedicate funding to making improvements on the line until the train cars are full.

“There is not a possibility to expand the A-Line, nor is there a need right now. Until we can fill it up,” said Councilman Kevin Flynn, who represents southwest Denver and supports the road expansion. “This is not the place to wage a war on cars.”

But opponents of the plan have also pointed to past studies, which show that widening roads can alleviate traffic temporarily — but ultimately attracts more people to drive on them, rather than spurring people to consider alternative options, such as transit.

If the airport does decide to widen the road, Morrissey said, it won’t be to add another general-purpose lane.

Last year, the airport released updated master plans for its transportation demand and Peña Boulevard, with the goal of reducing “drive-alone trips” for employees and passengers. The plan laid out possible improvements for the highway. Those options, which would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, included possibly adding a bus-only lane or a managed toll lane.

The environmental study would be conducted in line with the current federal National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, process. One snag: the way developers comply with NEPA, which has been criticized as an overly onerous and expensive process, may be changing under President Donald Trump’s administration.

The airport vowed to study impacts prioritized at the local level, “even if they might not be in the official federal NEPA documentation,” Morrissey said.

Councilwoman: “We need both” options

Under the proposal from Peak Consulting, the process would include public engagement, scoping, analysis of alternatives, environmental effects and possible mitigation.

During the March meeting, council President Amanda Sandoval asked how the airport arrived at the eye-bulging $15 million price tag for the contract. Morrissey responded that officials looked at similar projects to create that estimate, but the project may not take the full five years allotted.

Peak Consulting didn’t respond to a request for comment on the contract Monday.

The contract would include the amount of design work needed to satisfy the NEPA process, typically to the 30% level. It also includes an option for the firm to design the entire project.

If city officials ultimately decide to widen the road, the airport would likely pay for the majority of the cost and about a third would be paid for by other entities, possibly including the Colorado Department of Transportation, Washington said. The Federal Aviation Administration, though, has said it won’t contribute.

The study contract hit bumps earlier this year when council members’ questions about the proposal went so long in a committee meeting that a vote on it had to be postponed.

Council members said they’ve gotten hundreds of emails on the topic.

In an email to her constituents, many of whom take Peña for non-airport travel, Gilmore urged them to show up to a council general public comment session to support the study. In a suggested script, she encouraged them to focus on the impact for neighbors of the road.

“This shouldn’t be a black and white issue. Our only options shouldn’t be widen a road or build out our train system,” according to her email. “We need both.”

The council will consider the resolution during its regular meeting Tuesday, which begins at 3:30 p.m.

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