Construction barrels line East Colfax Avenue outside of Pete’s Kitchen. Jan. 24, 2025.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Construction on the Colfax Bus Rapid Transit is in full swing, but it’s not the only big bus project coming to Denver.
Two more BRT projects are scheduled for the years to come, and one of those is hitting milestones already.
Denver City Council is set to approve a $2.5 million contract with the Colorado Department of Transportation for the design of the upcoming Federal Boulevard Bus Rapid Transit project.
CDOT will use the money in its final design phase of the Federal BRT, which will stretch from Westminster to Englewood. In Denver, the project will include the relocation or improvement of about 13 bus stops and the removal of approximately six stops. That project could start in 2027.
Further down the line is a plan for BRT on Colorado Boulevard, expected for construction around 2028.
Colfax is the first part of a three-pronged plan.
Work has been underway on the Colfax BRT since October — the first of CDOT’s three BRT projects.
The hope is to make roads safer and transit more reliable on the city’s busiest corridors.
BRT projects generally include dedicated lanes for buses, as well as more developed stations. Much like a train, boarding platforms are level with the passenger area of the bus, allowing riders to step directly aboard. Multiple doors and prepaid fares make boarding and deboarding faster.
But the projects also will take years of construction. In the opening months of the Colfax project, businesses have reported lower revenues as customers navigate the construction.
Construction on Colfax’s $300 million BRT is scheduled into 2027, with sections under construction for a year at a time.
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Federal’s BRT is next on the docket. CDOT planners will spend the next two years designing the corridor before starting construction in 2027. The Federal BRT will be nearly twice as long as Colfax’s and take up to three years, according to CDOT.
CDOT’s direction for Federal Boulevard has been debated in the past. While the department has weighed widening a portion of the busy road to make space for bus lanes, that idea received pushback from advocates and city officials.
Colorado Boulevard also is slated to get a BRT facelift, but the timeline on that project is further behind the ones on Colfax and Federal. That project is in its initial stages, with construction planned for 2028.
A clear vision for the BRT on Colorado Boulevard is currently unclear, but initial design ideas should be available in the spring.
Denver and CDOT aim to have these three BRTs operational by 2030. Beyond that, the Denver Regional Council of Governments is studying the possibility of building even more along other busy corridors, such as Speer and Broadway.
