Jane Reuter

Some drivers might view bicycle trail improvements as projects with little bearing on their everyday travels, maybe as a waste of transportation money. But traffic experts say separating streets and trails eases travel woes for everyone.

Construction on C-470 trail underpasses at both Colorado Boulevard and Quebec Street are set to begin in late 2012 or early 2013.

A trail bridge over Erickson Boulevard east of Santa Fe Drive already is under construction, part of a larger project to improve the C-470 and U.S. 85 interchange. Future plans also show a trail underpass at Santa Fe, though money for that project isn’t in sight. Likewise, talks are underway for an overpass at Yosemite Street.

The less often pedestrians and cyclists cross major thoroughfares, the better traffic flows, transit experts say. Studies show crossings at Quebec Street, for example, can cause a chain reaction of signal delays. All it takes is one push of the pedestrian crossing button.

“If a bike or pedestrian crosses, particularly during rush hour, traffic signal timing is messed up for 5 to 10 minutes before it recovers,” said Art Griffith, capital improvements project manager for Douglas County. The underpasses are “a huge benefit to improving traffic operations,” he said.

“It’s always our goal to improve the whole system,” said Paul Jesaitis, CDOT’s program engineer for the Denver metro area.

That’s why the agency changed its name in 1991 from the Department of Highways to Department of Transportation, he said.

“We’re very much a transportation organization,” Jesaitis said. “I think the drivers out there think we spend too much on trails, and the cyclists think we don’t spend enough. There’s got to be a balance.”

CDOT spent about $6 million in the last year rebuilding a retaining wall along the trail behind Park Meadows Mall and raising box culverts near Chatfield Reservoir to put the trail above the water level.

Nevertheless, don’t expect to see grade-separated C-470 trail crossings at University Boulevard or South Broadway any time soon. While Jesaitis said he hopes those will happen someday, construction at the two interchanges will be complicated and expensive, and no money is available.

The $2 million Colorado Boulevard and Quebec Street projects are funded by a partnership between Douglas County and the CDOT.

The $26.7 million Santa Fe Drive interchange project pools funds from Douglas County, CDOT, the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Federal Highway Administration. More than $5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also was secured for the project.