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Yes, developers are allowed to block lanes of Denver roads

You're driving down the street, and bam! Lane closed. Why? Private construction of new apartment complexes.

DENVER — Traffic is bad enough without lanes being closed when no road work is happening.

You know what I'm talking about.

You're driving down the street in the middle of the day and bam! Lane closed.

Why?

Not road work.

Private construction of new apartment complexes.

"What Denver Public works does is we try to find a balance," said Denver Public Works spokeswoman Heather Burke. "We want them to be in and out as quickly as possible. We don't want them impacting traffic."

If it's any consolation, the city gets paid for your inconvenience. You don't.

"When a company comes to us and applies for a street occupancy permit, first question we ask is can you get this done during non-rush hour times? Second question we ask is, is can you get this done in three days instead of five days?" said Burke. "We charge people more if they absolutely have to close lanes during rush hour times."

There is a calculation used to determine how much a developer must pay to shut down a lane of traffic, a sidewalk or any right-of-way.

During peak times (6:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 24-hour closures) the rate is higher than between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

For peak times it's 50 cents per lane times the number of days closed, multiplied by the length of the closure in feet plus the taper length of the approach closure. For off-peak times is 45 cents in that equation.

Since that's really complicated, here's how it breaks down for some projects in the metro area.

  • 7th Avenue and Grant Street
  • One lane closure (Sept. 24 through Dec. 31): $18,760
  • Sidewalk closure (Sept. 24 through Mar. 19): $17,330
  • Total with permit fees: $47,980
  • 201 Mississippi Avenue (Logan Street/Mississippi Avenue)
  • One lane and parking lane closure 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Oct. 31 through Nov. 16)
  • Sidewalk closure (Oct. 31 through Nov. 16)
  • Total: $3,662.50
  • 3rd Avenue and Logan Street
  • 24-hour sidewalk and alley closures (Aug. 11 to May 11)
  • Total:  $72,287.50

RELATED: The prices developers pay to block Denver streets for construction projects

But why do they have to block off public access areas instead of just utilizing their footprints?

"A lot of the times they're utilizing heavy equipment, so things like large cranes, and at that point it's a safety issue. They need that space in that lane to keep the public safe," said Burke. "We have a team of right-of-way services inspectors and they're split up into districts, making sure that they're abiding by what's in their street occupancy permits."

The city gets paid its money, but what do drivers get for the additional time spent in their cars?

"The money goes back to the city, which you will see benefits in turn to the city, filling potholes, paving streets, it's all going to come back in that way," said Burke.

Story originally aired in November 2018

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