Late last month, crews placed the last girders for the Platte River Bridge, one of the most visible pieces of the Gold Line project. This bridge travels from the eastern edge of the Prospect neighborhood (just next to the Park Avenue viaduct) across the Consolidated Mainline freight tracks and the Platte River and lands just west of the Denver Police facility at Globeville Road and Park Avenue. The bridge rests about as high as the Park Avenue viaduct, providing an interesting perspective on the construction for those traveling into downtown Denver.
Crews were placing the set of girders the day of my visit. It was an awesome operation to see them place these large girders into place. Took one heck of a crane to lift them as well.
Crews were moving quickly and working on the deck pours for the rest of the structure while the final girders were being set in place. These guys don’t waste any time.
I had an interesting perspective of the underbelly of the Park Avenue viaduct as well. It’s amazingly clean down there…
Crews will continue work on the bridge for the next several months as the remainder of the deck is poured and other superstructure work is completed prior to track being laid sometime later this year.
Awesome, Ryan! Thanks for the good photos and update!
Brilliant update. Thanks for the photos. I can’t quite tell from the photos, but has the large rail building on the “Lodo” side of the river not been demolished? I’m surprised by that. I thought the city took ownership and planned to have it torn down? It looks as if the bridge is almost built on top of it?
I’m assuming you’re talking about the “7-11” building (at the dead on Fox Street) that used to have BNSF offices? If so, RTD purchased the building and tore just about half of it down to allow this bridge to be built. The other half is being used as a construction office for the contractor while the project goes on, but afterward, I’m not exactly sure what will become of it. If you’re not talking about that building, let me know and I’ll track down an answer for you.
I thought that building was going to come down also, then watched as they surgically sliced half off leaving a good old train building intact for some future use. It will be interesting to see if they sell it or would rather not have another condo/apt building so close to the elevated rails??
Hey Ryan — Headline from LA: “Metro Shelves Direct Rail to LAX.” Front page, LA Times today. At best, a people-mover will meet passengers at a check-in/bag check light rail station, up to a mile-and-a-half from the terminal. That light rail station has yet to be sited, and is not yet funded. Airport authority unwilling to pay for tunneling under LAX for a Metro station — and maybe impossible, anyway. A functioning “airport area” station is many years off.
So, in the city where the Car is King, no train to the airport. In Denver, the whole thing is being built. In less than two years, the Airport Train will be running.
In LA, car interests bought off the politicians and planners, to keep trains out of the airport. Before that, they tore up all the light rail tracks — 12-hundred miles of streetcar tracks, that went everywhere, to promote car sales.
The success message of Denver reads, Union Station Travel by Train.
Yes, Ryan, that is the one I’m referring to. The building between Park Avenue West and the Jack Kerouac Lofts. Love to see some public space there in the future. Guess I’ll have to wait and see. Thanks 🙂
Is anybody familiar with the “Borough Market” in London? http://boroughmarket.org.uk/ http://cdn.londonandpartners.com/asset/aca0d5c528e9d7fae64d48646b08d616.jpg
It is a daily food market tucked underneath a series of 19th century rail viaducts, and is one of the most creative uses of leftover space I have ever seen. Something like that would be incredible in this location! Look at all that empty square-footage under and between the Gold Line and Park Ave Viaducts! Throw in the former BNSF property and allow for new construction (finish out the understory space as done in London), and there would be enough room for it to grow for decades.