Driving Force

Fitzsimons Parkway circles medical campus in Aurora

The $40 million Fitzsimons Parkway opened in mid-April in Aurora, creating a vital piece of infrastructure to the Fitzsimons medical campus and bioscience park. The project also included the remediation of three military landfills.

By Diana Murphy

Photo courtesy of Matrix Design Group

After seven years of planning, design and construction, a major piece of infrastructure is in place now at the Fitzsimons Medical Campus and Bioscience Park in Aurora.

Opened in late spring, the Fitzsimons Parkway is a two-mile-long, four-way arterial designed to provide transportation, access, utilities and economic development for the square-mile former Fitzsimons Army Base and Hospital.

"It's extremely significant," said Ron Degenhart, PE, CFM, city engineer with the city of Aurora Department of Public Works. "It provides a major transportation link around the perimeter of Fitzsimons from Colfax to the I-225 interchange to what is going to become [Martin Luther King Jr.] Boulevard at the Peoria Street intersection."

Once it's extended through the Stapleton redevelopment area, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard will provide a direct link from central and downtown Denver to the Fitzsimons campus via the parkway. The parkway will also accommodate an anticipated light rail line and station that will become a vital part of the Fitzsimons campus transportation system in the future.

"This will be a major transportation facility for the entire campus," Degenhart said. "The campus is projected to have over 100,000 vehicles per day once University Hospital, Children's Hospital and the V.A. [Veterans' Administration] Hospital are here. There's going to be 30,000 workers there every day. It's going get really exciting."

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Three-In-One

The parkway project incorporated the integration of three distinct design and construction projects:

• Construction of two miles of four-lane arterial roadway to relieve traffic congestion;
• Updating the utility infrastructure to accommodate significant new development at Fitzsimons; and
• Remediation of three historical military landfills that were never properly closed.

"It was one of the largest landfill remediation projects in the state," said John Biswurm, PE, CHMM, vice president and director of construction for Matrix Design Group, which provided program management and construction management services. "And the fact that it involved three of them made it even more significant."

The city of Aurora integrated the three projects into one to save costs with a shorter construction period than if the projects were undertaken separately.

"It was hoped that economies of scale and savings in time could be achieved by combining them," Degenhart said.

Funding for the $40 million project came from the city of Aurora, Federal Economic Development Administration, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, University of Colorado Hospital and the U.S. Army.

In June 2003, at a ceremony at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the city of Aurora was awarded the largest single EDA grant ever made - $5.1 million.

"Fitzsimons is a model," said Commerce Secretary Don Evans. "It's the largest biotech redevelopment project in the country. Thirty-two thousand new jobs - that's exciting to me."

Making Plans

The Fitzsimons Parkway project was initially envisioned in the Fitzsimons Infrastructure Plan completed in 1997. The city of Aurora would build the roadway to provide transportation for the former army base, recommended for closure in 1995 as part of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.

The south half of the site would become the new home for many state health services, including the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and University of Colorado Hospital, as well as The Children's Hospital, Veterans' Administration facilities, Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, Ben Nighthorse Campbell Center for Native American Research and the Anschutz Inpatient and Outpatient Pavilions.

The north half of the site would become the home of a new Bioscience Park managed by the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority.

The project involved a number of agencies and entities throughout planning, design and construction. They included the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gov. Bill Owens' office, the city of Denver, Colorado Department of Transportation, Urban Drainage and Flood Control District, University of Colorado Health Sciences and numerous local businesses.

"Everyone worked together on the federal, state and local levels to make this happen," Degenhart said.

Landfill Remediation

Along with the early transfer of the property, set for 1999, the city accepted responsibility for the clean-up of three former army landfills. The ESCA - Environmental Services Cooperative Agreement - was completed and signed in September 2001.

"[The parkway] was one of the first projects in the country done in privatization under the BRAC," Biswurm said. "This project would be a bellwether for this type of arrangement."

As part of the agreement, the city would clean the landfills, with the army contributing he money to the project through a grant. It was also decided that the alignment of Fitzsimons Parkway would pass through the three landfills, requiring their remediation and complete removal beneath the roadway.

The landfill remediation design and ESCA called for complete removal of Landfill No. 4, which was classified as incinerator ash. Landfill No. 1, classified as municipal solid waste, was also completely removed. Landfill No. 2, also classified as MSW, was partially removed, with the remainder capped with a 30-year operations and maintenance plan.

Because the landfill remediation design was done at the same time as the roadway design, planners were able to optimize the cut and fill volumes. The roadway profile and alignment were also coordinated with the landfill removals and backfill.

More than two miles of waterline, two major sanitary sewer outfalls and three major storm sewer outfalls were also constructed within the roadway alignment.

Project Highlights

The Fitzsimons Parkway project wasn't without its challenges.

"The coordination of the numerous aspects of the scope of the project and the promise to our neighbors not to shut down service were among the biggest," Degenhart said. "[Fitzsimons] is the densest area under construction in the Denver area. With all the redevelopment under way, particularly for CU, if you ride down I-225 coming from the north, all you see are cranes sticking up in the air."

The project was also affected by the fuel cost increases and cement shortages that plagued other construction projects around the region at the end of 2005..

But by working with the city, the contractor - Concrete Express Inc. - was able to reprioritize its available concrete allocation and actually accelerate the work, Degenhart said.

Concrete Express used a special paving machine - believed to be the largest in Colorado - to pave one half of the entire roadway cross-section in one pass. The cross-section consisted of two 12-ft lanes, median curb and gutter and outside curb and gutter. The machine could also negotiate superelevated sections of the roadway.

At certain times, Concrete Express was able to pour more than 2,400 cu yds of concrete per day, equal to 2,700 ln ft of roadway. In total, 65,733 sq yds of non-reinforced 10-in.-thick concrete pavement was installed.

On the landfill side of the work, Concrete Express also used innovative methods for handling and disposal of the MSW, allowing crews to remove and backfill up to 2,780 cu yds per day. In total, more than 338,761 cu yds of MSW was removed and 318,556 cu yds of backfill provided.

"They came in on time and on budget," Degenhart said. "They did a great job."

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