Time to get back to our West Corridor updates in preparation for its opening on April 26 (only 106 days away)! An archive of past updates can be found here.
As many of you know by now, the Wadsworth Station will span Wadsworth Boulevard just north of the 13th Street alignment on top of a 63 foot wide, 400 foot long bridge. A 1,000 space parking garage is being constructed just to the north of the station on the east side of Wadsworth between 13th and 14th Avenues. The bridge also holds a bike path just north of the station platform, allowing for easy access across Wadsworth.
The platform itself has a canopy design unlike any seen throughout the rest of RTD’s light rail network. The City of Lakewood paid about $2 million for an enhanced design that includes a slick canopy design – meant to be reminiscent of the Chinook winds seen during Colorado’s warm Indian summers. Lakewood views this station as their chance to “wow” passengers and make the Wadsworth Station their most visible station.
The panels, while opaque, will help block sunlight during the hot summer days and provide some relief from the heat while allowing light to penetrate through and help warm us on our cold winter days, as well.
The station also features staircases and elevators on either end of the bridge to allow easy access to the platform from both sides of Wadsworth. RTD estimates nearly 6,500 people will utilize the station by 2030 making connections like these invaluable.
To make the bridge lighter (and therefore cheaper to construct), RTD elected to remove the ballast and fix the rails directly to the bridge deck as the train crosses Wadsworth.
The canopy has a slick lighting scheme at night as well, easily visible from both directions along Wadsworth. Be sure to check it out if you’re out that way. Next time, we will take a look at the Garrison Station.
Money well spent by Lakewood. I know it’s hard to top the industrial wasteland that is south Santa Fe, but I think the west line is going to be by far the most scenic of all the lines.
As a near by resident (six blocks away) I’m overjoyed at the extra effort that the City of Lakewood has spent on the iconic “clouds” canopy and fixtures yet to come at the Lakewood-Wadsworth Station. The best part of the West Corridor? Most likely it will be the Indiana Street Flyover bridge at 6th Avenue and Indiana Street. The flyover resembles a mild roller coaster ride and with the Rocky Mountains as a background to the west, the view of the light rail going over this flyover will become the sparkling Jewell representation of the entire FasTrack system. You can take that bet to the bank!.
I ride the SE line almost daily and easily the biggest issue with those stations are the lack of canopies. It’s great to both such a large canopy and one that is attractive and practical.
I wonder when Lakewood will build a spur to Belmar…
If there’s not a bus route there then I certainly hope there will be one soon.
I’ve always wondered if Lakewood would ever be interested in something more urban like a streetcar, since they are now landlocked and seem to be embracing density for future growth. Something like a loop that used Colfax, Sheridan, Alameda, and Wadsworth would be ideal because it could foster transfers with the Light-Rail at both Wads and Sheridan, and would link in to their self described “city center” where Belmar and their city hall is. Accompanying infill along all 4 boulevards could really start to make Lakewood feel more like a “borough” of Denver than a suburb.
When my son and I rode the S. Platte River trolley over the summer, the conductor told me Lakewood now owns an antique streetcar and they have plans to operate it between a light rail station and a redeveloped Westland Shopping Center (on Colfax.
Very cool! That must be part of the Oak Street development area. Lakewood currently has a collection of area plans prepared for pretty much the entire stretch of Colfax from Sheridan to the Oak Street station area, as well as for the Federal Center/Union Boulevard. I applaud them for the effort and sincerely hope it pays off, but the amount of currently blighted land they have planned for urban density is absolutely mind blowing. If completely built-out and connected to Downtown Lakewood/Belmar along the major avenues, we’d be taking about an urban area nearly the same size as Downtown Denver. It offers development possibilities for potentially decades! I suppose this makes perfect economic sense for a city that can no longer rely on viral outward growth for an expanding tax base.
Lakewood is updating its downtown/Belmar plan and one of the major topics is a shuttle or bus route north/south along Wadsworth to connect to the light rail station.