In conjunction with developing design plans for a bicycle and pedestrian bridge to span the railroad tracks at the intersection of 47th Avenue and York Street in North Denver, CIG worked with Wilson & Co. to conduct two public meetings at different phases of design development. Both meetings were designed to update community members on this much-anticipated project and gather their input on various project aesthetic elements. The first meeting – conducted Jan. 17, 2018, at the Colorado Miner’s Community Center – marked the first public meeting since the conclusion of the city’s East/West Connectivity Study in 2016. This study involved significant community input and resulted in a recommended bridge design and a preferred alignment for the structure. With Wilson & Co. brought on to advance the design and identify improvements to the alignment, one of the goals of this meeting was to highlight improvements made to the initial concepts. The January 2018 meeting also served to remind people of the work that went into developing the East/West Connectivity Study in the first place.
Building Community Excitement
Leading up to this public meeting, CIG facilitated several one-on-one meetings with property owners immediately adjacent to the bridge site to show them draft concept plans to give them a sense of what the structure will look like in relation to their properties. To continue building community excitement for the project, a 3D printed model of the revised bridge design was created and CIG worked with City and County of Denver community relations staff to show the model at these Swansea Elementary School events in the fall of 2017:
- Project representatives attended an after-school program at the Valdez-Perry Library to show the 3D model of the bridge and talk with students about the benefits this bridge will bring in helping them walk safely to and from school when trains are on the track.
- Project representatives participated in Swansea Elementary School’s Trick-or-Treat Off the Street event, passing out candy and displaying the 3D model to help build interest and excitement.
- Project representatives attended a “Muffins with Munoz” meeting at the school to show the 3D model and discuss the project with parents and school administrators.