Denver approves $5.33 million grant for Broadway Station pedestrian bridge
State and city funding will pay for design of a proposed bridge linking the I-25/Broadway RTD station to the future NWSL stadium and Santa Fe Yards, but Denver still must fund construction.
Denver City Council approved a $5,333,333 grant Aug. 24 for a pedestrian bridge intended to connect the I-25/Broadway RTD station with the future NWSL soccer stadium and the Santa Fe Yards development.
The council adopted Resolution 26-1166 en bloc, with all 12 members voting yes and none voting no, according to the official council minutes and resolution record. The grant comes from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, and the agreement allows project funding through Dec. 31, 2029.
The approval funds design but not the full construction project. CBS Colorado reported that the bridge is estimated to cost about $23 million overall. The current package includes roughly $4 million in state transit-oriented-development grant money and about $1.3 million from Denver, leaving the city to find the remaining construction funds.
No construction start date has been announced in the records reviewed. Completion is targeted for 2030, according to CBS, but that timeline depends on securing additional funding and could put the bridge’s opening after the stadium’s. The grant agreement’s Dec. 31, 2029, end date is not identified as a construction-completion deadline.
The bridge is intended to address an access gap around the station and stadium site. People arriving at the station currently face a walk of more than a mile to the future stadium, CBS reported. Council Member Flor Alvidrez told the outlet that the existing route crosses railroad tracks and an existing bridge, raising concerns that stadium visitors could try to cross the tracks directly.
Coordination and neighborhood-access questions remain unresolved. Alvidrez said Denver is working with the Colorado Department of Transportation on plans for Santa Fe Drive and wants to avoid widening the road. The current records do not establish a final design, the full set of railroad and RTD approvals, or how pedestrian access would be maintained during construction.
The bridge was envisioned before the 2026 grant. Denver’s Broadway Station Infrastructure Master Plan, approved in 2016, proposed pedestrian and bicycle connections across the Consolidated Main Line railroad corridor as part of broader station-area redevelopment. The plan included north and south pedestrian bridges as well as an improved at-grade connection along Mississippi Avenue.
The plan described the bridges as links among neighborhoods, the RTD station, the South Platte River Trail and proposed residential and commercial development—not solely as a stadium-access route. It also said station access would need to be phased with roadway changes and identified coordination and approvals involving RTD, Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway and the Public Utilities Commission.
The available 2026 council record does not say whether the current project will include both bridges described in the 2016 plan, retain the at-grade alternative or use a substantially changed design. It also does not provide an itemized $23 million budget or a firm construction schedule.
A separate measure, Bill 26-1163, concerns an amendment to the 2025 Stadium Site Project intergovernmental agreement. The bill was advanced for later consideration and was not the grant approval.