The Eighth Avenue bridge over Burnham Yard is seen on June 7, 2025. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston wants to remove the portion of a two-lane bridge that goes over Burnham Yard, the shuttered railyard being eyed for a possible Denver Broncos stadium.
The $935 million bond package proposed by Johnston, which could be on the ballot for city voters this November, includes $89.2 million to make changes to a short stretch of Eighth Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
It is the most expensive of the approximately 60 projects included in the bond package.
The existing bridge, also known as the Eighth Avenue viaduct, begins on the east at Mariposa Street, where Lincoln Park transitions from residential to industrial.
It passes over tracks used by the Regional Transportation District, the state-owned Burnham Yard, the southern end of Denver Water’s campus and more tracks utilized by freight trains before again becoming a surface street at Vallejo Street, just east of Interstate 25.
The $89 million project would get rid of the eastern portion of the bridge over the RTD tracks and Burnham Yard and instead make that section of Eighth an “at-grade roadway,” or surface street, according to city documents.
A portion of Eighth would remain a bridge. It would instead ramp up at the east around Seminole Road, by Denver Water’s campus, before ramping down at the existing spot by Vallejo.
The bond package also includes $50 million related to the Sixth Avenue bridge just to the south, which crosses a narrower section of Burnham Yard. That money would pay for repairs and design work for a future replacement of the bridge, a project a city official said Tuesday would likely require federal funds and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The seven-lane Sixth Avenue bridge, a key link to Interstate 25, sees about 64,000 vehicles a day, according to the city. The smaller Eighth Avenue bridge sees 14,500, according to the city.
The Broncos say no decision has been made on a new stadium site, or even whether to leave Mile High, the state-owned stadium that the team has leased through the 2030-2031 season. Nevertheless, the team has already spent at least $140 million on private property around Burnham Yard, although no deal between the state and team has been announced for the 58-acre former railyard. The team is also in talks with Denver Water, which owns 35 acres adjacent to Burnham Yard.
A Broncos spokesman declined to comment on Wednesday on how the elimination of the portion of the bridge over Burnham Yard could impact development undertaken by the Broncos at the site, or access to it.
At a Tuesday Denver City Council committee meeting, Councilwoman Sarah Parady pressed on the extent the bridge projects might have been prioritized because of the Broncos’ interest in Burnham Yard.
“At the Mayor’s Office level, was that part of the conversation, the potential Broncos development?” she asked. “Which isn’t an invalid consideration, because it means more traffic and everything else. I just want us to have a more honest dialogue about it if that’s the reason it got elevated over other things.”
Sarah Parady
Patrick Riley, bond project manager with the city’s finance department, responded that it’s “impossible to not get to that thought process.”
“It is impossible to ignore the Broncos as a thing in Denver,” he said. “So telling you that there’s no weight there or no consideration there would be insulting to everyone at this table.”
“So then why hasn’t it been mentioned up until now?” Parady asked.
The exchange was the first time that city officials specifically acknowledged publicly that the Broncos are interested in Burnham Yard. Prior to this, they’d spoken generally of keeping the team in Denver.
Riley, however, described the bridges as simply in need of investment. He said the Eighth Avenue bridge was considered for city bond money in 2018, long before the team became interested in Burnham Yard. And on Sixth Avenue, he said Denver needs to “get to a pre-design space where we can go chase a grant and hopefully get federal money and be ready when a more favorable administration is in Washington.”
“This is about life safety. This is about our bridges and structures. This is about being able to connect two sides of the city and be able to move fire trucks across. This was a conversation years ago,” said Riley, who also clarified he is personally not a Broncos fan.
A full list of the proposed bond projects can be found on the city’s website.
MAP: In this interactive map, bridge portions of Sixth and Eighth avenues are outlined in blue. Burnham Yard is shown in yellow. Boundaries are approximate.
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The Eighth Avenue bridge over Burnham Yard is seen on June 7, 2025. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston wants to remove the portion of a two-lane bridge that goes over Burnham Yard, the shuttered railyard being eyed for a possible Denver Broncos stadium.
The $935 million bond package proposed by Johnston, which could be on the ballot for city voters this November, includes $89.2 million to make changes to a short stretch of Eighth Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
It is the most expensive of the approximately 60 projects included in the bond package.
The existing bridge, also known as the Eighth Avenue viaduct, begins on the east at Mariposa Street, where Lincoln Park transitions from residential to industrial.
It passes over tracks used by the Regional Transportation District, the state-owned Burnham Yard, the southern end of Denver Water’s campus and more tracks utilized by freight trains before again becoming a surface street at Vallejo Street, just east of Interstate 25.
The $89 million project would get rid of the eastern portion of the bridge over the RTD tracks and Burnham Yard and instead make that section of Eighth an “at-grade roadway,” or surface street, according to city documents.
A portion of Eighth would remain a bridge. It would instead ramp up at the east around Seminole Road, by Denver Water’s campus, before ramping down at the existing spot by Vallejo.
The bond package also includes $50 million related to the Sixth Avenue bridge just to the south, which crosses a narrower section of Burnham Yard. That money would pay for repairs and design work for a future replacement of the bridge, a project a city official said Tuesday would likely require federal funds and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The seven-lane Sixth Avenue bridge, a key link to Interstate 25, sees about 64,000 vehicles a day, according to the city. The smaller Eighth Avenue bridge sees 14,500, according to the city.
The Broncos say no decision has been made on a new stadium site, or even whether to leave Mile High, the state-owned stadium that the team has leased through the 2030-2031 season. Nevertheless, the team has already spent at least $140 million on private property around Burnham Yard, although no deal between the state and team has been announced for the 58-acre former railyard. The team is also in talks with Denver Water, which owns 35 acres adjacent to Burnham Yard.
A Broncos spokesman declined to comment on Wednesday on how the elimination of the portion of the bridge over Burnham Yard could impact development undertaken by the Broncos at the site, or access to it.
At a Tuesday Denver City Council committee meeting, Councilwoman Sarah Parady pressed on the extent the bridge projects might have been prioritized because of the Broncos’ interest in Burnham Yard.
“At the Mayor’s Office level, was that part of the conversation, the potential Broncos development?” she asked. “Which isn’t an invalid consideration, because it means more traffic and everything else. I just want us to have a more honest dialogue about it if that’s the reason it got elevated over other things.”
Sarah Parady
Patrick Riley, bond project manager with the city’s finance department, responded that it’s “impossible to not get to that thought process.”
“It is impossible to ignore the Broncos as a thing in Denver,” he said. “So telling you that there’s no weight there or no consideration there would be insulting to everyone at this table.”
“So then why hasn’t it been mentioned up until now?” Parady asked.
The exchange was the first time that city officials specifically acknowledged publicly that the Broncos are interested in Burnham Yard. Prior to this, they’d spoken generally of keeping the team in Denver.
Riley, however, described the bridges as simply in need of investment. He said the Eighth Avenue bridge was considered for city bond money in 2018, long before the team became interested in Burnham Yard. And on Sixth Avenue, he said Denver needs to “get to a pre-design space where we can go chase a grant and hopefully get federal money and be ready when a more favorable administration is in Washington.”
“This is about life safety. This is about our bridges and structures. This is about being able to connect two sides of the city and be able to move fire trucks across. This was a conversation years ago,” said Riley, who also clarified he is personally not a Broncos fan.
A full list of the proposed bond projects can be found on the city’s website.
MAP: In this interactive map, bridge portions of Sixth and Eighth avenues are outlined in blue. Burnham Yard is shown in yellow. Boundaries are approximate.
Read more: Broncos buying around possible Denver stadium site
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Read more: Broncos must build income-restricted housing after $7M deal by Burnham Yard
Read more: Amid Broncos talks, Denver Water tells neighbors it ‘intends’ to buy their property
Read more: Developer ‘sitting here in purgatory’ after acquisition notice from Denver Water
