OREANDA-NEWS. Work is now underway to rebuild a highly traveled section of Peña Boulevard from just west of Tower Road to E-470. Denver International Airport (DIA) contract crews began work to reconstruct the approximate one mile section of Peña Boulevard on March 10. The USD 9.6 million project is expected to be complete by mid-November 2014, prior to the busy Thanksgiving holiday.

More than 72,000 vehicles travel this section of Peña Boulevard each day. Deterioration of the concrete on the one-mile section from just west of Tower Road to E-470 has progressed to the point that routine maintenance is no longer effective. Crews are currently constructing a temporary bridge which will carry traffic over Tower Road while construction is ongoing. The bridge will be part of a temporary realignment of Peña Boulevard which will allow workers to reconstruct one side of Peña Boulevard while traffic utilizes the other side of the roadway.

“Peña Boulevard is now about 20 years old and is showing the wear and tear normal for a concrete roadway,” said Dave LaPorte, Denver's deputy manager of aviation for Airport Infrastructure Management. “This project will work similarly to the reconstruction project we completed on Peña Boulevard between 64th Avenue to just west of Tower Road in 2012. We will build a temporary alignment for traffic to utilize while one side of the roadway is reconstructed.”

DIA will maintain four travel lanes, two in each direction, for Peña Boulevard traffic throughout the construction project. Construction is expected to result in a four-day closure of the off-ramp from inbound Peña Boulevard to Tower Road in early May. Motorists will still be able to access Tower Road during the four-day closure by using the 56th Avenue exit instead.

Attached is a map showing the project area as well as the construction phasing. Throughout the construction process, speed limits in the area will be reduced to 45 MPH. Drivers heading to DIA should allow for extra travel time.