Street Maintenance and Improvement

Street Maintenance locations for the week of July 15, 2024:

• Fort Logan: A Street Maintenance Crew will mill W Saratoga Ave from S Federal Blvd to S Irving St
• Fort Logan: A Street Maintenance Crew will mill W Tanforan Dr from W Layton Ave to S Federal Blvd
• Fort Logan: A Street Maintenance Crew will pave S Hawthorne St from W Union Ave to S Irving St
• Fort Logan: A street maintenance crew will pave W Layton Ave from S Irving St to S Federal Blvd
• Fort Logan: A Street Maintenance Crew will pave W Tanforan Dr from W Layton Ave to S Federal Blvd
• Baker: A Street Maintenance Crew will pave N Lipan St from W 4th Ave to W 7th Ave
• Baker: A Street Maintenance Crew will pave W 4th Ave from N Kalamath St - N Lipan St
• City Park: A Street Maintenance Crew will be milling in City Park

ADA ramp, curb, gutter and other concrete construction, asphalt and landscape work:

Week of July 15, 2024 (weather permitting):

• Hampden: ADA ramp, curb and gutter, alley pan and sidewalk repair from Holly Pl to Locust St, and S Magnolia St to S Pontiac St between E Dartmouth Ave and Hampden (Keene) Project Manager: Bryce Miller

Learn more about citywide concrete and ADA pedestrian improvements

• Hot-In-Place-Recycle (HIPR) heats the top inch of existing asphalt pavement and mixes this with new asphalt. This process is less expensive and more environmental friendly than mill and overlay and provides a pavement that will last 8 to 10 years
• Chipseal and the related Capeseal are minor surface treatments, relatively inexpensive, that seal and restore the surface of a pavement and adds 6-8 years of life to a pavement
• Mill/Overlay is a major process where typically the top 2" of pavement are removed by grinding and replaced with new asphalt. This process adds approximately 12 years to the life of a pavement
• Major Machine Patch crews cut out section of the roadway for repair anywhere from 50' to 200' long and 10' to 30' wide and 8" deep and apply 7 tons or more of asphalt for repair

Potholes and sinkholes may have similar appearances but their causes are different. Both are deformations in the pavement that collect water, can be jarring to hit, and in extreme cases, cause damage to our cars.\

Get help reporting a pothole

Potholes

Water, freezing temperatures and vehicle loads can combine to break apart the surface of a pavement. These can rapidly develop into potholes that range in severity from a nuisance to a significant safety problem. Street maintenance has crews that are out daily as weather allows looking for and patching potholes. In warm weather most potholes are patched with hot asphalt, but in winter months the potholes are patched with temporary cold asphalt to make the street safe until warm weather allows for a more permanent repair.

Sinkholes

Occasionally a problem will occur beneath a street where soil washes away. This usually occurs when a break occurs to an underground pipe. The pavement will settle into the void, creating a sinkhole. The initial appearance of a sinkhole is similar to a pothole. Street Maintenance and other agencies will investigate all suspected sinkholes for underlying problems and then perform a permanent repair to utilities if warranted and then the pavement.

Concrete/ADA Ramp Program

Starting in 2015, Denver greatly expanded pedestrian ramp construction to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1992 (ADA).

According to ADA standards, newly constructed or altered streets must contain curb ramps. As a result, Street Maintenance’s Annual Concrete Program will prioritize the installation of ADA pedestrian ramps in all locations where the Street Maintenance Division is planning to do street work and a ramp may need to be replaced. Performing ramp improvements before the street work is done saves money, preventing new street work from being damaged by ramp construction. ADA accessibility is mandated at all intersections.

Similarly, reported curb and gutter damage will be inspected and any necessary repairs will be prioritized accordingly. The City’s goal is to perform repairs prior to, or in conjunction with, the annual paving program and address spot repairs based upon severity and coordination with other requests to allow the work to be performed in an efficient manner.

The City of Denver is responsible for the maintenance of curbs and gutters along public streets in the City. In those areas where no curbs exist, the City will require developers to install curbs if property development/redevelopment is occurring, or in select cases, the City may install curb lines as part of other capital maintenance activities. In instances where sidewalks and curbs have been constructed as one unit, the City will make an assessment if any needed repairs are the responsibility of the City or the abutting property owner.

The majority of curb repairs made by the City are in conjunction with other projects such as paving operations or utility work. This helps to provide a higher quality project and fewer construction disruptions to any specific street. A citizen may request an inspection and ‘spot’ repair, but these will be made only if a public safety issue is discovered. Repairs to normal aging will be deferred until that entire neighborhood is scheduled for pavement rehabilitation.

Because of ecological impact of unpaved alleys and the economic drain of maintaining them, in 2005 Mayor Hickenlooper created a program to pave with asphalt the more than 1000 unimproved public alleys in the City. The program took approximately 6 years to complete with 100 to 200 alleys being paved each year.

Alley Types and Maintenance

There are four kinds of alleys in Denver, and each is maintained differently.

• Asphalt Overlaid Alleys
  There are about 1,400 asphalt overlaid alleys in the City & County of Denver. These alleys are constructed of concrete with a layer of asphalt over the concrete. The City maintains all asphalt overlaid alleys using treatments as explained in paving options for streets and alleys.
• Unimproved Alleys
  There are less than 150 undedicated unimproved alleys in the City and County of Denver. There is a program in underway to pave these remaining alleys in asphalt by the end of 2016.
• Concrete Alleys
  There are nearly 2500 concrete alleys in the City and County of Denver.  DOTI maintains the city's concrete alleys using treatments as explained in paving options for streets and alleys.
• Asphalt Alleys
  When the Unimproved Alley Paving Program is complete there will be approximately 1000 asphalt alleys. DOTI maintains these alleys using treatments as explained in paving options for streets and alleys.

Street Lights

Street Lights or Street Lamps come in a variety of shapes, styles and sizes, but in general, the term refers to the lights that are on the sidewalks or the sides of streets and shed light on the right-of-way.

Street lights in the City of Denver are maintained by Xcel Energy. Any street light problems should be reported to them using their Outdoor Lighting Outage form.

New street or alley light request

Application for Street Lighting(PDF, 370KB)

Traffic lights and signals (sometimes referred to as a "Traffic Light" or "Stop Light") are the red, yellow and green lights that direct traffic at intersections. The correct term for this type of light is "Traffic Signal" or "Illuminated Traffic Signal." Report an issue online or call 311 to report problems with signal lights.