A pedestrian bridge pitched by Gov. Jared Polis as a way to honor the 150th anniversary of Colorado’s statehood faces a rocky path to approval, with most members of a key legislative committee casting wary-at-best eyes toward the $28.5 million proposal.
The Colorado 150 Pedestrian Walkway is designed to snake through Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park west of the Capitol like one of Colorado’s rivers, then rise above Lincoln Street to reach the Gold Dome’s grounds. It won cautious approval last week from an advisory committee.
But the proposal’s next stop, as soon as August, is a six-member panel of elected lawmakers that weighs in on capital project requests. Many of them are still smarting from the need to cut more than $1 billion in planned spending this year while staring down another dire budget cycle next year.
In interviews this week, several voiced reservations.
“This $29 million ‘art installation’ is financially irresponsible and completely tone-deaf,” Rep. Tammy Story, a Conifer Democrat and chair of the Capital Development Committee, wrote in a statement to The Denver Post on Wednesday. “Colorado is facing a second year of extreme budget cuts, with over $1.2 billion already slashed in this fiscal year alone.”
“Yet,” she added, “in the face of these realities, the Governor is championing a grandiose bridge that serves no substantial or necessary function.”
Polis, a second-term Democrat whose last year in office will coincide with the state’s 150th anniversary in 2026, proposed the winding pedestrian walkway in November. His office unveiled the first design renderings in May.
The walkway, described as a functional monument and memorial to Colorado’s first 150 years, will cost about $19 million, officials say. Extra landscape and grading work, upgraded crossings at Broadway and Lincoln Street, and the incorporation of artwork by Colorado artists will make up the remainder of costs, said Danielle Oliveto, Polis’ deputy chief of staff and the office’s lead on the project.
Those extra costs have drawn more attention lately after state officials earlier had publicly cited only the walkway’s cost estimate of $18 million to $20 million. So far, the state has spent about $1.5 million on designs, and the governor’s office has about $8 million in discretionary funds available for the walkway itself.
That means about $11 million would need to be privately raised for the walkway. Money for the other components would likely come from state coffers, such as maintenance funds, lawmakers said.
On May 22, the day Polis’ office unveiled the renderings, the images were shown to many of the state’s movers and shakers and philanthropists at the Mizel Institute’s annual dinner in Denver. The institute was founded by homebuilder and political megadonor Larry Mizel.
Pitched as ‘legacy project’
Oliveto says the walkway is intended to bring life to an “underused” park — especially as other revitalization work, such as the Colfax Bus Rapid Transit project, proposed pickleball courts at Civic Center Station and renovations at Civic Center Park are underway. As envisioned, the walkway would help tell Colorado’s story from before settlers claimed the land to the modern era, when industries like oil and gas help shape the state. It would also showcase Colorado artists.
Oliveto called it a “statewide legacy project.”
“We’ve had multiple goals for this project. It’s not just about accessibility or telling the story (of Colorado) or activating a park,” Oliveto said. “It’s all of the above.”
The proposed walkway ran into immediate opposition, however.
The Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, a registered neighborhood organization in Denver, formally opposed the project in early June. Historic Denver, a preservation nonprofit, outlined its opposition in May, before the renderings were even publicly released.
At the June 26 advisory committee meeting, most public comments were in opposition to the proposal.
That advisory committee, mostly made up of appointees named by Polis and legislative leaders, ultimately advanced the proposal on an 8-4 vote — though several who voted yes said it was to continue the conversation, not necessarily to give explicit support. The project also won praise from the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition for inclusive design.
But the people tasked with reviewing the project at its next step may not be as hospitable.
Five of the six members of the Capital Development Committee expressed strong reservations, if not outright opposition, to the project in comments to The Post. Those five all cited concerns about costs — especially when the state has been wrestling with how to pay for Medicaid and keep safety-net hospitals afloat and schools funded.
“I’m not thinking about a bridge right now,” Sen. Kyle Mullica, a Thornton Democrat on the building advisory committee, said. “I’m thinking about, ‘How do we take care of the people of Colorado?’ ”
‘Where is $29 million best spent?’
The committee had been set to meet about, and possibly vote on, the pedestrian walkway on Tuesday, but the topic was pulled from the agenda. The committee meets next on Aug. 14, and the governor’s office said Wednesday that it planned to incorporate feedback before returning.
Mullica and Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat on the committee, both said they would hear out the governor’s team before making a final decision, though their concerns remain high.
“Where is $29 million best spent?” Hinrichsen said. “The Capitol and everything around it is, first and foremost, the people’s house. It deserves to be upkept, it deserves to showcase the wonders of our state, and that takes investment. But we owe it to people to invest in our communities and not have the Capitol stand out as the one shining glory.”
The committee’s two Republicans, Rep. Ty Winter of Trinidad and Sen. Byron Pelton of Sterling, however, are both standing firm against the project.
“I’m a no,” Pelton said. “I’m a big no. The reason I’m a no is that we have way too many other things to be paying for — and not a monument to Gov. Polis.”
In southern Colorado, Winter said, people are struggling to buy groceries and pay bills, so it’s perplexing to see the state trotting out plans to build a monument in front of the Capitol.
“It doesn’t make sense to my constituents, and it doesn’t make sense to me,” Winter said.
Story, the committee chair, also blasted the proposal as a “Bridge to Nowhere” — and, worse, as possibly taking away from the somber, respectful recognitions of other monuments on the grounds, such as the just-approved Sand Creek Massacre memorial.
The walkway would also occupy space typically used for protests, potentially posing a safety concern when thousands converge on downtown Denver, she said.
“Thanks to the constraints of TABOR, every dollar we spend must be a dollar well spent,” Story said, referring to government spending constraints in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. “In this political climate, Coloradans deserve leadership that prioritizes people over aggrandization.”
Oliveto, the governor’s lead on the project, argued that money from the governor’s budget and private fundraising will cover the bulk of costs. Lawmakers characterized the money set aside as residuals from pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act grants. But the governor’s office says it’s from “refinanced general fund dollars,” not federal funds.
Backers argue the project is not just about Colorado’s first 150 years as a state, but about creating connections with Coloradans for generations to come.
“No one wanted the Statue of Liberty to happen,” Oliveto said, referring to when newspaper mogul Joseph Pulitzer led a public fundraiser to build the iconic statue’s base after its planning committee had run out of money. She called it “an old problem we have (when) doing exciting, bold projects.”
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