Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Extension Project

Havana St. to Peoria St.

The 1.1 mile extension of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (MLK) from Havana Street east to Peoria Street is a planned transportation improvement within the Stapleton Redevelopment Area. The new roadway will extend mostly through the City and County of Denver, and a small portion will be located within the City of Aurora. 

Improvements

  • A new roadway between Havana St. and Peoria St. built to arterial standards, with two travel lanes and one parking lane in the east-bound direction, and two travel lanes in the west-bound direction.
  • A paved bicycle/pedestrian path and a soft-surface equestrian trail on the north side of MLK between Havana St. and Peoria St., separated from the roadway by a landscaped buffer.  
  • A raised median with landscaping between the east-bound and west-bound lanes.
  • A paved bicycle/pedestrian path on the south side of MLK between Havana St. and Peoria St., separated from the roadway by a tree lawn.
  • Reconstruction of Moline Street to 26th Avenue as a two-lane collector street.
  • Traffic signals at Kingston St., Moline St. and 26th Ave.; street lighting; and signage for a 35-mile per hour speed limit.

Construction Updates

Major construction was completed in July 2021. 

Landscape maintenance is ongoing and will continue through September 2022.

MLK Project Map

Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Extension project map

See Detailed Cross Section(JPG, 548KB)

Project Schedule

  • June 2017 — Approved NEPA EA Reevaluation by CDOT and FHWA
  • Late June – July 18 – Noise Wall Benefited Receptor Voting Process (affected property owners and residents only)
  • July 2017 - Public Meeting
  • October 2017 – Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) approved by CDOT/FHWA
  • Summer 2018 — Design completed
  • November 2018 – July 2021 — Construction
  • July 2021 — Construction completed

Project Background

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) prepared a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Environmental Assessment (EA) in 2011. At that time, a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was not made by the CDOT and FHWA because funding was not available to construct the project. Since then, a combination of federal and local funding has been identified and the project is able to move forward. 

The City and County of Denver has prepared a NEPA EA Reevaluation of the project that was approved by CDOT and FHWA in June 2017. The NEPA EA Reevaluation updates the environmental analysis to reflect current site conditions as well as new CDOT/FHWA and other environmental requirements.

Following a month-long public review and comment period that included a public meeting, a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was approved by CDOT and FHWA on October 19, 2017. With this approval, the project is proceeding into final design, permitting and construction.

Technical Materials

FONSI

Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) – October 2017 (PDF)

Environmental Assessment

Public Meeting Materials

March 2016 — Presentation(PDF, 5MB)

July 25, 2017 — Presentation(PDF, 1MB)

Noise Wall Benefited Receptor Vote - Updated with Vote Results

Update Friday, July 21

The MLK Extension noise wall voting process is presumed to be completed as of 4:00 pm on 7/21/17; three days past the voting deadline at midnight 7/18/17. This additional time was to allow all mailed ballots to be received by CCD PW. The voting results are

NSA 3: 
Yes = 15 (27.3%)
No = 40 (72.7%)
71.4 % of possible votes cast

NSA 4:
Yes = 5 (12.8%)
No = 34 (87.2%)
75% of possible votes cast

NSA 6:
Yes = 9 (47.4%)
No = 10 (52.6%)
63.3% of possible votes cast

Documentation of the voting results will be mailed to all benefited receptors, and will be presented at the public meeting on Tuesday, July 25.

The noise analysis process conducted per requirements of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) “Noise Analysis and Abatement Guidelines, 2015” determined that noise abatement, in the form of noise walls, is both reasonable and feasible along three separate portions of the project on the south side of the new MLK Blvd. from Ironton St. to Moline St. Along these three blocks, adjacent property owners and residents (benefited receptors) will be asked to vote on their preference for, or against, the construction of a noise wall within their block. If a majority of benefited receptors vote to approve a noise wall within their block, Denver will construct a noise wall. If not, no wall(s) will be constructed. The voting process will conclude in mid-July and results will be posted on this webpage.

A short section of a demonstration noise wall has been constructed just west of Kingston St. along the new MLK alignment. There will be a site meeting and mock wall demonstration on July 5th from 4:30 to 6:30 pm to answer questions that voters may have.

A visual simulation ‘fly-through’ of the walls can be viewed online (one per block) and at the July 5 meeting.

Please note: these Autodesk links require an updated desktop browser with Flash enabled and may not work on mobile devices or older computers. Chrome or Firefox recommended.

The data may take several minutes to load, depending on connection speed. Once the model has loaded, you can interact with the static model, or view an animated for the noise wall by clicking the "movie" icon in the upper left of the page. Select the "story board" for that block to begin the animation. While the animation plays, you can toggle the noise walls on and off to see the perspective with and without the wall using the “Layers” control located next to the Story Board icon. Check the barriers box on/off while the animation is running.

Project Status: Construction Complete

Work on the extension of Martin Luther King Blvd began in November 2018 and construction was completed in July 2021.

Contacts

Jim Geist, Senior Engineer
Department of Transportation and Infrastructure
james.geist@denvergov.org

Tasha Jones
Brookfield Properties
Tasha.Jones@brookfieldpropertiesdevelopment.com

Colby Pappel
M.A. Mortenson Company
colby.pappel@mortenson.com

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