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DOTTI outlines bridge risks, lists high-priority replacements and launches public dashboard
Summary
Denver’s Department of Transportation & Infrastructure told the South Platte River Committee it owns or oversees hundreds of bridges citywide, identified five high-priority bridge projects (including Sixth & Lincoln and Smith/Sandown), reported a ~13.8% structurally deficient vehicular rate and demonstrated a new public bridge-condition dashboard.
City engineers told the South Platte River Committee on Wednesday that Denver’s bridge inventory needs sustained funding and advanced planning, and they demonstrated a new public dashboard that shows live inspection data by council district.
"We own about 650 bridges citywide," Jennifer Williams, principal project manager at the Department of Transportation & Infrastructure (DOTTI), said, explaining that DOTTI and Denver Parks & Recreation own most of the inventory. Williams described the inspection cadence and condition ratings tied to the National Bridge Inventory and said a rating of 4 or lower indicates "poor" condition.
DOTTI said about 13.8% of Denver’s vehicular bridges are rated structurally deficient and the average bridge age is roughly 38 years. The agency said it currently averages about $7,000,000 per year for bridge funding and that capital planning shows a multi-year gap to maintain or return the inventory to a state of good repair.
Engineers highlighted recent South Platte River investments that preserved or replaced structures, including a roughly $15,000,000 combination of CIP and Elevate funds for the Park Avenue viaduct project, rehabilitation work on six Speer-Arch bridges, Twentieth Street preservation and an Eighth Avenue bridge replacement that relocated the South Platte River Trail out of the floodplain.
Brad Chamberlain, DOTTI bridge manager, listed five top citywide needs that include Sixth Avenue viaducts, Eighth Avenue viaducts, Sixth & Lincoln over Cherry Creek, Smith Road and Sandown over Quebec, and Quebec Street over Airline. He said Sixth & Lincoln is the most structurally urgent, followed by Smith/Sandown and Quebec/Airline, and warned that some bridges may be load-posted this year—placing temporary weight limits on local industrial routes.
Councilmembers pressed DOTTI on jurisdictional limits when bridges are state-owned. Councilmember Flynn asked whether DOTTI could isolate CDOT-owned bridges in Denver for comparison; DOTTI said it will request CDOT data. DOTTI also demonstrated an interactive public dashboard that allows users to filter bridges by council district, view inspection dates and see condition-color coding (red for poor, yellow for fair, green for good).
DOTTI told the committee that some high-need replacements—especially large viaducts—will be expensive and require multi-year design, permitting and coordination with redevelopment plans, and suggested that steady, rolling funding (or targeted bond initiatives) would be more effective than only episodic, one-off investments.
The committee thanked DOTTI for the briefing and indicated interest in follow-up data from CDOT and further discussion about steady funding options.
