Lincoln Avenue, between Oswego Street and Park Meadows Drive, is a vital regional arterial in Douglas County. While some minor improvements have been made to this corridor over the past decade, growth is on the horizon, creating a need for more multimodal options and safety amenities in the area. The City of Lone Tree and Douglas County, in partnership with stakeholders, are leading this planning project to develop a long-term vision for this corridor. This initial project phase is expected to wrap up in spring 2024 with a completed environmental study and preliminary design of a recommended project.

The City of Lone Tree, Douglas County and Denver South are sponsoring the Advancing Lincoln Avenue study. The project partners secured funding for the study through the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). The sponsors plan to use the work prepared through this study to pursue other federal, state, and local funding opportunities to advance the final design and / or construction of improvements on Lincoln Avenue from Park Meadows Drive to Oswego Street.

We invite you to click on the interactive map to leave a comment related to a specific location or click on the feedback tab to the right to send us your comments or questions. You can also click on the Public Meetings tab to review information from the first public meeting. The second public meeting is scheduled to take place in September 2022.

The project team is developing alternatives for improving both the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange and the Lincoln Avenue and Havana Street intersection. The proximity of Havana Street just east of I-25 means that improvements made in one location will affect the other, so careful consideration needs to be given to all design combinations between the two. As of spring 2022, the project team has developed approximately a dozen potential alternatives for the I-25 and Lincoln interchange and another half-dozen alternatives for the Lincoln and Havana intersection. The process of evaluating and screening these alternatives will continue through Summer 2022 with the goal of identifying a recommended alternative in the Fall 2022.

The next public meeting is expected in September 2022, after the project team has had an opportunity to move through a portion of the alternatives screening process and has information to share with the public. The goal of this meeting will be to not only share information but solicit feedback from the public on the process. In the meantime, the project team urges you to check the project website frequently for additional updates. You can also click on the feedback button provided on all website pages or utilize the Interactive Map feature to provide comments. These features will remain active throughout the project and are continuously monitored by the project team.

Yes. The initial schedule showed completion of this first project phase (including alternatives development and screening, NEPA, and preliminary design) by the end of 2023. The project team has adjusted the schedule to allow additional time for agency and stakeholder coordination in this first phase, with the goal of developing the best alternative for improving the Lincoln corridor. The updated schedule can be found on the homepage.

Since November 2021, the project team has been collecting and analyzing various pieces of traffic and safety data; gathering survey, environmental and multimodal information; meeting with stakeholders along the project corridor to gather input; and developing design alternatives for the I-25 interchange and Havana Street intersection. The team also developed a Purpose and Need statement (located on the Background Resources page) and evaluation criteria to help guide the process of developing and screening design alternatives. The team has also conducted numerous meetings with vested stakeholders along the project corridor like property owners, local planning officials, emergency service agencies and office park managers to vet these early design alternatives and develop the best options moving forward. More details regarding project activities can be found on the Project Update page.

The current study includes preliminary engineering and environmental clearance through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and will be completed in the spring of 2024. While the project partners are currently pursuing final design and construction funding opportunities, we will have a better understanding of how much the improvements will cost as the project moves forward. Construction funding is currently unavailable.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life, work, and travel. Some people have yet to return to their offices in the project area, and as a result, traffic counts taken for this study in October 2021 likely underrepresent post-pandemic demand. While regional traffic volumes overall are largely back to pre-pandemic levels, travel patterns remain disrupted. At the end of 2020, Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) staff compared traffic volumes from permanent traffic counters in the region and found that the pandemic affected both the quantity and timing of vehicle travel in the region, with fewer people traveling overall, especially in the morning and afternoon peak periods. At the height of the pandemic restrictions in April 2020, travel was down about 50% compared to April 2019; though, by October 2020, traffic volumes on major interstates and state highways in the region generally returned to 2019 levels. The study team is working closely with DRCOG to evaluate travel effects post-pandemic and adjust assumptions about future travel patterns and volumes. For instance, will people continue to work from home at least some of the time, decreasing travel in the peak periods? Will demand for package and food deliveries remain high, increasing freight and delivery traffic? Despite the pandemic effects, the Denver region is projected to grow, with more demand for travel and travel options.

Sustainability means many different things and we need to think not only about what it means now, but also what it will mean in 2050 and beyond. We are going through evaluation criteria right now that will help us determine this. We’re interested in ideas from the public, too, as we go through this evaluation screening process.

Yes. We will be looking at traffic operations and congestion and signal progression along the entire corridor from Park Meadows Drive to Oswego Street.