The Eighth Avenue viaduct, a bridge between Tejon and Mariposa streets near where Interstate 25 meets Sixth Avenue, was closed over the weekend for maintenance, according to the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

When it reopened Monday morning, the speed limit had dropped from 30 mph to 10 mph, city transportation officials said in a news release.

Officials have not yet decided if the change will be permanent.

The goal is to get motorists to drive slowly over the bridge’s damaged expansion joints, which are now covered by two steel plates installed during the weekend closure, according to the news release.

Expansion joints enable bridges to accommodate traffic loads, expand and contract as temperatures fluctuate and more, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The metal plates over the joints create a large bump in the roadway and could cause damage to vehicles if driven over too quickly, city officials said. Both plates will be in place until the damaged joints are repaired or replaced.

Maintenance and repairs will continue on the viaduct, and Denver transportation officials are seeking funding to replace the bridge’s west side.

The question of that funding, if approved by the Denver City Council, could appear on the November ballot as one of the projects included in the Vibrant Denver Bond.

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As of July 25, drivers can only turn left at the intersection of Tower Road and East 81st Avenue when they have a green arrow, city officials announced on social media. Before, drivers were allowed to turn on a flashing yellow.

City officials said the change was already in the works as part of a larger safety effort, but staff prioritized it after the recent shuttle bus crash.

“The goal of the change is to remove human error, including misjudging the speed of oncoming traffic, from those left turn movements,” city spokesperson Travis Huntington said in an emailed statement to The Denver Post. “This is based on an engineering judgment and not necessarily related to a history of serious crashes at any particular location.”

Huntington said there were zero fatal crashes at that intersection between 2019 and 2023, but added that “one fatal crash on our roads is one too many.”

Just over 30 crashes were reported at the intersection during that time frame, and most of them were noninjury crashes, according to data from the city.

Staff monitored the location through the weekend after the light change was implemented and found it did not cause additional congestion at the intersection, Huntington said.

More intersections throughout Commerce City can expect to see the same changes go into effect in the coming weeks.

For now, that includes Tower Road at East 83rd and East 88th avenues, and where East 104th Avenue meets Colorado 2 and Chambers Road, city officials said.

The green-arrow-only turns are part of Commerce City’s new safety action plan, which focuses on reducing fatal and injury crashes across the city, according to Huntington.

That plan is still being drafted and is scheduled to go before the city council for adoption in September, but city officials are taking early action to improve safety at these intersections where the current lights “presented cause for concern,” he said.

As the lights are implemented, staff will decide if the green-arrow-only turns will be added to more intersections, Huntington said.

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After four hours of public comment and board discussion, the RTD directors voted to send the proposal back to the Operations, Safety and Security committee to hammer out details. A final vote on the issue is expected in September.

The board had in front of it a recommendation from RTD staff to increase the fare for Access-on-Demand rides from no charge to $6.50. RTD subsidies per ride would have been reduced from $25 to $20 under the plan. There would still be a 60 ride-per-month cap in place.

A stream of people with disabilities took to the microphone Tuesday evening and beseeched the RTD board to leave the Access-on-Demand program alone, calling it “life-changing” for those with limited mobility. One speaker said the service, which uses third-party services such as Lyft and Uber to provide rides, has made grocery shopping possible for her, and she asked the board to allow her to live the “same kinds of lives you live.”

During the course of the evening, directors proposed lowering the $6.50 fare to $4.50, and then to $2.50. Dropping the fare by $2 per ride would cost RTD $1.4 million in revenues.

Director JoyAnn Ruscha pushed hard to keep Access-on-Demand service free.

“People will lose jobs; they will lose access,” Ruscha said. “There is a human cost.”

Director Chris Nicholson pointed out that cutting RTD revenues by keeping the service free would result in financial impacts to other parts of the sprawling transit system.

A group of 50 or so people with disabilities gathered in front of RTD’s headquarters building on Blake Street on Tuesday afternoon. One person held a sign reading: “Our Mobility is Not Optional.” Another read: “We Can’t Drive — Don’t Cut Our Rides.”

Dave Bahr, who is blind and lives in Louisville, said he relies on Access-on-Demand to visit his girlfriend Chelsea Cook, who lives in Littleton and is also blind.

“It is literally our lifeline,” Bahr said. “It makes my relationship with Chelsea possible.”

Cook, who uses Access-on-Demand for such travel as getting to work or rock climbing outings, said Access-on-Demand is far more convenient and efficient than Access-a-Ride.

“You can be on that little bus for four hours,” she said of Access-a-Ride.

Bahr said being able to travel in a regular vehicle rather than on a specially equipped bus makes him “feel human.”

“It is my lifeline to where I go and who I see,” he said of Access-on-Demand.

Disability activists have a long history — stretching back to the 1970s — of fighting for services and accommodations from RTD.

In 1997, the agency added the “paratransit” minibus service, called Access-a-Ride, for people who, because of disabilities, cannot use buses or light rail trains. The minibuses require day-before reservations (standard fare $4.50) and cost RTD more than $60 per trip. Riders complain that they fail to reach their destinations on time.

The Access-a-Ride service complies with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Five years ago, RTD leaders launched the Access-on-Demand, one of the first comprehensive programs in the nation to provide taxpayer-funded commercial ride-hail service for people with disabilities. It gives qualified riders up to 60 rides a month to locations they choose using Uber, Lyft or Metro Taxi.

RTD pays up to $25 per ride, which typically covers riders’ costs (the average ride cost is $16).

Hours and range of coverage for Access-on-Demand would “mirror” that of Access-a-Ride.

In metro Denver, riders with disabilities have embraced Access-On-Demand. The number of rides they took increased tenfold, from 6,250 a month in January 2021 to more than 62,750 a month, agency records show.

RTD’s monthly cost for Access-on-Demand has ballooned to more than $1 million. Agency managers recently told the board of directors that the program isn’t financially sustainable. RTD projects that the recommended changes would shave about $5.6 million off the $15 million price tag — or about 36% — needed to run the program.

Brian Grewe is executive director of Atlantis Community Inc., a Denver-based nonprofit that helps people with disabilities to live independently. He said he would like to see more emphasis put on building out the Access-on-Demand service over the Access-a-Ride program.

“AoD serves more people and costs less money,” Grewe said.

Inside the hearing room, Grewe told the board that $6.50 per ride doesn’t sound like much in isolation. But that cost is for just “one ride, one location” and that the total quickly adds up across multiple trips, he said.

In other business Tuesday, the RTD board voted unanimously to rename Civic Center Station after Wade Blank, a disability activist who was at the forefront of a movement in 1978 in which people with disabilities blocked downtown Denver streets to demand greater accommodations on RTD buses.

The station will be renamed the Wade Blank Civic Center Station in January. Blank co-founded Atlantis Community Inc.

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Troopers responded to the crash at 11:06 a.m. on U.S. 285 near eastbound Colorado 470, spokesperson Sherri Mendez said. One person was taken to the hospital “as a precaution,” but further information about their condition was not available.

Northbound U.S. 285 was closed near C-470 for nearly three hours, reopening at 1:46 p.m., according to the Colorado Department of Transportation

A photo posted by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office showed a Caliber RV flipped upside down on the highway median.

Troopers are still investigating the cause of the crash, Mendez said.

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Frontier crew members on Monday discovered two threatening notes onboard a flight headed from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Denver, airline spokesperson Rob Harris said in an emailed statement to The Denver Post.

It’s unknown what the notes said or how they were discovered.

When the plane landed, Denver police officers helped evacuate passengers and then searched the aircraft, according to the department.

“A security sweep of the aircraft resulted in no findings of concern and the aircraft has been released back into service,” Harris stated.

Denver police confirmed that officers cleared the plane, and that “the threat appears to be unfounded at this time.”

Passengers on the flight were taken to the terminal by bus to be reunited with their luggage or catch connecting flights, Harris said.

The FBI is investigating the incident, Denver police said. Federal officials did not respond Monday to requests for comment.

Two days earlier, an American Airlines flight was evacuated at DIA after the landing gear caught fire during takeoff.

American Airlines officials have not yet confirmed what caused the fire, but said the plane was taken out of service for inspection. One person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and five others were evaluated on scene.

Another American Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing at DIA in March, when one of its engines caught fire after taking off from Colorado Springs.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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Scammers are placing fake QR codes on parking signs in Denver that send users to international websites instead of the city’s parking app.

The first batch of fake codes appeared in Cherry Creek the first week in July, said Nancy Kuhn, spokeswoman for Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure. City workers canvassed the area and scraped off the stickers.

Then, last week, more fake codes appeared along Broadway and Lincoln Street in the Baker and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.

The fake codes are printed on stickers and placed on signs that instruct people how to pay for parking. Once scanned, they take users to a website where they are instructed to enter their personal and credit card information.

The city only uses an app called Pay By Phone to collect parking fees, Kuhn said.

“We’re not going to send you to a website and ask for your credit card,” she said.

The city also generally does not use QR codes on parking signs, except for in the Highland neighborhood. In that neighborhood, some parking signs have a QR code that will direct a user to download the Pay By Phone app.

The city’s QR codes in the Highland neighborhood have green dots in the center and are only on overhead signs, Kuhn said.

“If you run across (one on) a meter outside of LoHi, or if you see one in Cherry Creek, they’re likely fake,” she said.

City officials are asking anyone who finds a fake QR code to report it by calling 311. Denver police have been alerted to the issue as well, Kuhn said.

“We’re trying to address this as quickly as possible,” she said.

Anyone who received a parking citation because they paid the scam website instead of the city should contest the ticket, Kuhn added.

A recently surfaced video of passengers evacuating an American Airlines flight at Denver International Airport has sparked concerns of people prioritizing luggage over safety and disregarding evacuation procedures.

“3023’s aborting on the runway. … Fire on the left side,” the American Airlines pilot can be heard saying in an air traffic control recording obtained by Denver7.

Video shared by Denver7 of the evacuation shows passengers sliding down the rubber slide, many holding their carry-on bags and several struggling to balance their luggage with their children.

“In the unlikely event of an evacuation, leave all carry-ons behind and follow the lights quickly and safely to the nearest exit,” American Airlines officials state in the airline’s safety briefing played at the beginning of each flight.

The video, which shows passengers violating those safety instructions, led to backlash online.

One passenger told Denver7 that everyone on the plane was told not to grab anything. When people continued to collect their bags, it derailed the evacuation process.

Part of the plane’s landing gear caught on fire during its departure from Denver International Airport on Saturday, according to Denver7’s reporting.

The Miami-bound American Airlines flight 3023 reported a “maintenance issue” with an airplane tire about 2:45 p.m. and aborted takeoff, airline and federal officials said.

Only one of the 173 passengers and six crew members onboard the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Airport officials said Saturday that five others were evaluated on scene but not taken to the hospital.

After hearing a loud “boom,” the plane “started to violently shake and we were drifting to the left side of the runway,” Shay Armistead, a 17-year-old from Minturn, Colorado, told The Associated Press in an interview.

Armistead and her teammates on a ski racing team were on their way from Colorado to Chile when it happened.

“I started grabbing my friend’s hands, I was like ‘Oh my God,’ and then they slammed on the brakes, and we all like went forward and they finally brought the plane to a stop,” she said. “It was just terrifying.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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If you’ve got dogs lazing outside your storefront, chances are I’ll stop in.

Good thing I was going to Mike’s Bikes anyway. The East Denver location of the California-based chain is tucked behind an AMC Theatre, near the end of a nondescript block at Colorado Boulevard’s 9+Co. development. And yet biking enthusiasts pour in and out of the store every day, petting gentle sentries Scout (a labradoodle) and Peach (a bassett hound/lab/husky mix) as they rep the good vibes inside.

My 12-year-old son’s bike recently threw a gear, prompting not only a new bike search, but also new helmets for him, my daughter and me — of which Mike’s naturally carries various styles and price ranges. We opted for ones with Mips protection, a brain-safety layer that should be familiar to most cyclists, “designed to move slightly in the event of an impact (and) … redirect rotational motion away from the head,” according to Mips’ website.

Standard stuff at most bike shops, sure. And Colorado has no shortage of great ones (local chains, even!).

Non-standard, however, in my experience, was the kind, patient reception my 8-year-old daughter Lucy received. A friendly young employee walked her through bikes, helmets, gloves and more without the pressured sales pitch or superiority complex, giving my daughter space to envision herself speeding down the street on one of these many beautiful frames.

She learned to ride a little later than most kids, and the assumption she’s already totally confident is something I’ve felt from other bike shop employees (perhaps understandably, given the rabid cycling culture of the Front Range).

Mike’s Bikes East Denver made all of us feel welcome, despite our lack of experience, cycling jargon and, well, budget. We ended up buying a pair of new helmets, then returning for a tube next week when we needed it. I can’t help but want to go there next time I need anything cycling-related (and because it’s close to my Park Hill North home). Repairs, test rides, quickly answered questions, and free Tuesday tech clinics give me plenty of excuses to drop in. And the window shopping. Oh, the window shopping.

Despite its foot traffic, Mike’s Bikes East Denver still feels somewhat undiscovered, having changed over from Elevation Cycles in November 2022 after the latter sold its four Front Range locations to Mike’s (as of June, there’s now a fifth Mike’s in Boulder). And as for the dogs? They’re “an extremely integral part of the store,” according to manager Jack Lafleur, and they love the children who stop in. My kids and I would concur.

Mike’s Bikes East Denver, 821 Ash St., Denver. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays. Call 720-573-9988 or visit mikesbikes.com/pages/denver-east.

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Francis has listened to lots of music — the other day he took a deep dive into the catalogues of Steely Dan and Led Zeppelin — while rolling the 48 miles down Interstate 25 from Loveland, where he lives, to Denver’s Union Station. Then it’s just about a mile to his office on Broadway.

The 62-year-old IBM manager doesn’t miss the white-knuckle driving through narrow passageways in I-25 construction zones. Or the sudden halts as a cascade of brake lights go red in front of him. Or, when he looks in the rearview mirror, the dread of a big rig bearing down on him.

“I think that’s the beauty of it, is that my mood isn’t dictated by the drive,” Francis said. “Rather, I just sit and relax, have a snack and listen to whatever makes me happy at the time.”

But key to making the public transportation experience worthwhile, Francis says, is ease of use. And that’s where the Colorado Department of Transportation’s mobility hubs, the first of which opened in Loveland less than a year ago — with more to come in the next few years across Colorado — play a critical role.

“When I board the bus, it’s going to be a straight shot,” he said, “with no twisting and turning.”

On a recent weekday morning, Francis stepped on a Denver-bound bus at the Centerra Loveland Mobility Hub, a dedicated Bustang stop wedged between the northbound and southbound lanes of I-25 just north of U.S. 34. The bus rolled up, Francis got on and both were gone.

Time elapsed: about 30 seconds.

Danny Katz, a transit advocate and executive director of CoPIRG, or the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, said there’s no doubt the easy on-and-off that CDOT provides with these new facilities will add to the allure of transit. They may also bring some measure of relief to Colorado’s famously congested highways.

“Before these mobility hubs, the bus would have to get off the highway like everyone else and make multiple turns — some of them left turns,” Katz said. “In the best of times, it adds two to three minutes, and in the worst of times, it adds four or five minutes.”

Speed, reliability and frequency, he said, are the “key ingredients” of successful transit. And mobility hubs directly address the speed and reliability challenge by making the boarding and disembarking process seamless.

“It’s very train-like,” Katz said.

Opened last fall, the Centerra Loveland Mobility Hub was the first in a network of a dozen or so mobility hubs that CDOT will be rolling out in the coming years, mostly along I-25 from Fort Collins to Pueblo. A second hub in Berthoud, 10 miles down the highway, opened a few weeks after Loveland’s hub went online.

CDOT contractors broke ground on two more mobilty hubs in recent weeks — Broomfield/Thornton and Skyridge/Lone Tree, down in Douglas County. They are expected to be fully operational in 2026.

Longer-term plans call for mobility hubs in Castle Rock, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. On I-70, CDOT has hubs destined for Idaho Springs and Grand Junction. Another is in the design phase for Fairplay on U.S. 285.

CDOT executive director Shoshana Lew calls mobility hubs the “center of gravity” of Colorado’s regional transit network.

But it’s their connections to local, shorter-range transit options — be it local buses, shuttles, scooters or bike services — that make them hubs.

“The secret is to integrate into growing local systems,” Lew said. “We want to ensure that the buildout of the I-25 corridor is a multimodal one.”

Bustang ridership on the upswing

Bustang first hit the road a decade ago this month, taking passengers to and from Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Glenwood Springs. The system, including a Bustang Outrider offshoot, has grown to 20 routes serving far-flung locations in the state — Craig, Durango, Alamosa, Lamar, Crested Butte and Sterling among them.

CDOT also offers seasonal Snowstang service to several ski resorts in the I-70 corridor, and it runs Bustang buses to Broncos games in the fall.

Bustang’s fortunes, compared to the Regional Transportation District’s, are stark. RTD provides bus and train service across metro Denver. While RTD’s ridership decreased from 106 million in 2019 to around 65 million per year today — the result of pandemic restrictions and a shift away from traditional commuting patterns — Bustang has gone the other way.

Ridership on the state’s family of Bustang routes — including high-volume, dozen-buses-a-day service along I-70 between Denver and Grand Junction and I-25 between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs — exceeded 350,000 in the fiscal year that just ended June 30, according to CDOT. That was up from 175,000 in 2021.

“The North Line is up to prepandemic levels,” said Heather Paddock, CDOT’s region transportation director for northeast Colorado.

The North Line is the Bustang route that connects Fort Collins with Union Station in Denver. It’s the route Cecil Gutierrez, a former Loveland mayor who’s now a state transportation commissioner, takes when he wants to catch a show or attend a meeting in Denver.

“It’s been a big success,” he said of the line.

Not long after the Loveland mobility hub opened last fall, Gutierrez said, CDOT doubled the service frequency on the North Line, which has 12 buses a day now going in each direction on I-25. North Line ridership has exploded in the last five years, from just over 13,000 passengers in 2021 to more than 92,000 in the 2025 fiscal year that just ended, CDOT says.

“If we want to make Bustang reliable and accessible, the frequency of the ride is always going to be a piece of that,” he said.

Lew, CDOT’s executive director, said officials realize the agency is always “competing for people’s business.” So everything counts when it comes to making travel as easy as possible — both inside and outside the bus.

Inside, there is free Wi-Fi service, along with bathrooms, power outlets and luggage bays. Outside, the service has to be constant and reliable, in the spirit of what RTD is hoping to provide with bus rapid transit on East Colfax, where buses will ride in a dedicated lane to keep from getting tangled up with other traffic.

Similarly, Bustang buses get to ride in the express lane for much of the distance between Fort Collins and Denver. (Express lanes are under construction between Berthoud and Longmont.)

That’s crucial to keeping the service running reliably, Paddock said.

Mobility hubs, she said, can range in cost from $3 million for a basic design to $25 million for something more ambitious. Centerra Loveland cost $15 million to build, Paddock said.

Calm amongst chaos

Using the Centerra Loveland Mobility Hub feels a bit surreal on a first go.

The station is located in the middle of I-25, a protected oasis inside a roaring interstate. You park your car or scooter and walk up a path to a lighted tunnel that takes you under the interstate. Branching off that tunnel are two more — one to a southbound platform, the other to a northbound platform.

The station has a sheltered bench and an electronic display that shows pickup times throughout the day. The Bustang bus peels off the left side of the highway and into the center median in a dedicated lane, stopping to pick up and drop off passengers. It then merges back onto I-25.

The whole process takes a minute at most. Paddock, of CDOT, said the new arrangement actually shaves 10 minutes off what it took to reach the Park-N-Ride that preceded the Centerra Loveland Mobility Hub.

Not all of CDOT’s mobility hubs will hew to the same design. The Skyridge/Lone Tree hub won’t be center loading, instead sending buses down traditional off-ramps for passenger pickup and drop-off before merging back on the highway. The hub will be tied together with a 260-foot pedestrian bridge over I-25.

Lone Tree Mayor Marissa Harmon said the hub will open next year in the midst of a fast-growing employment center and residential node in metro Denver. It will serve Bustang’s South Line, RTD’s southeast E-Line light rail and the Link on Demand shuttle service that connects to Lone Tree and Highlands Ranch.

The suburban city’s population of 15,000 is expected to double in the coming years.

“Our priority has always been investing in key infrastructure projects before they are needed,” she said. “Those rooftops are popping up quickly over on the east side (of I-25).”

Katz, with CoPIRG, said Lone Tree has done a “great job of creating businesses and residences” right at the nearby Lone Tree City Center rail station, helping to foster transit-oriented development.

Looking south, CDOT has plans for a mobility hub in Castle Rock, which has missed out on the transit game by not being part of the RTD system. CDOT says a location for the Douglas County town’s hub should be identified next year.

There are no completion dates set for the hubs in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

Francis, the Bustang commuter from Loveland, said the $9 one-way Bustang ticket to Denver has been well worth it. While he could get to his job faster by car, saving time isn’t everything. By using Bustang, he saves wear and tear on his vehicle, keeps his gasoline bill low and doesn’t have to worry about finding and paying for parking downtown.

And there’s the peace of mind of not having to fight the thousands of other motorists on the road every day.

“I don’t know about the traffic and I don’t care,” he said. “This trip is not under my control, and I accept that.”

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The eastbound highway was closed at exit 94 for the Garfield County Regional Airport, about two miles east of Rifle, just before 3 p.m. Sunday, according to state transportation officials.

It fully reopened by 3:45 p.m. Sunday.

State officials didn’t specify the type of fire or how it was impacting the highway.

This is a developing story and may be updated. 

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