Danielle from Denver writes, “What’s driving you crazy? Why does the sidewalk at 8th and Josephine at Congress Park just end into the dirt and doesn’t connect to the street? I saw someone walking their dog and they have to walk in the mulch and dirt, then around a utility box to cross the street.”
When I went out there to take a look Danielle I was perplexed, especially seeing the freshly laid concrete sidewalk on the northeast side of the intersection that didn’t have any connection to the crosswalk.
The way it works right now is if someone is walking north on the sidewalk along Josephine or east along the sidewalk next to 8th Ave, when they want to cross the street, you see a slight ramp down to the roadway. You cross the street, but when you get to the northeast corner of the intersection, there isn’t any adjoining ramp or continuation of the sidewalk. You have to walk up and over the curb and into the dirt with a bit of mulch thrown about to get to the sidewalk and then into Congress Park.
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I asked Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) about the missing sidewalk.
A new sidewalk has been added along 8th Ave to the east and to the north along Josephine, Cyndi Karvaski told me.
“Next, DOTI will be coming in to build the ADA ramps that connect the new sidewalks to the street, and we’re also updating the signal infrastructure there and resetting/relocating the storm sewer inlets. This work is out for bid now, and we hope to start construction this year,” Karavaski said.
I was not told why this sidewalk access was missing until now. There are still some sidewalks around Denver that still do not connect to the street. Until this work is complete, just know that you will be off-roading, or off-sidewalking in this case, for a short time and the ground could be a little muddy after a storm.
Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify and Podbean.
