Coffman Street Busway Project

Hi Abigail - thanks for your interest in the Coffman Street Busway Project! 

To answer your question, the City has always struggled with the barriers these wider regional arterials, like Ken Pratt Blvd, create for active transportation users. We understand that trying to cross Ken Pratt Blvd at Main Street is difficult, and is probably best done using the wider, adjacent side paths along both roadways.  

On the west side of Main Street, many bicycle riders and City staff members would also recommend using South Pratt Parkway as the best alternative place to cross Ken Pratt Blvd. This street has bicycle lanes and a signalized intersection at Ken Pratt, and is fairly close to Main Street. East of Main Street, the signal at Kimbark and Ken Pratt provides a good way to connect from the Lefthand Greenway on the south to the northern St. Vrain Greenway, just east of Main Street. The City is also looking at ways to improve the current signalized crossing at Martin Street—there are bicycle lanes further north and south of the intersection, but people on bicycles must “share the road” through the two roundabouts in the area and at the intersection. Many people use the adjacent side paths and crosswalks/signals when crossing as a bicyclist.

Another crossing that many bicyclists recommend west of Main is at Bowen Street—it, too, has a signalized intersection. The City is currently working on improvements for the Sunset Street crossing of Ken Pratt by completing the bicycle lanes across this intersection, making safety improvements for pedestrians crossing this wide regional arterial, and simplifying the lane configuration for vehicles to hopefully reduce conflicts here as well. This project should be complete in late 2022.

Finally, the City is pursuing a federal grant to help rebuild the Hover/Ken Pratt Blvd intersection with an additional bicycle underpass of Hover, connecting to our existing underpass of Ken Pratt Blvd just southwest of the intersection. This project, with grant approval, will go a long way in reducing conflicts for all travelers, regardless of mode of travel, in this intersection.  

Staff discussions have started on locating an underpass of Ken Pratt Blvd somewhere between Sunset Street and South Pratt Parkway, but there are no more details at this time as to the exact plans, location, and cost. We hope to update our planning documents, with all of these planned improvements, by 2023.

Hi Brian, 

Thank you for your question! 

Regarding the Coffman St Busway project, the City is reconstructing the entire corridor, so bike lanes and pedestrians walkways—separated from each other and the street—are a key component of the overall project.

Additionally, our current and newly proposed street standards include much more space for bicycles (on-street) and multiuse paths (off-street) depending on the size and character of the street. Retrofitting bicycle facilities into existing streets (i.e. 9th Ave and Mountain View Ave) is sometimes necessary, and requires evaluating space available, traffic volumes, travel speeds, maintenance operations (such as snow removal, street sweeping, etc.), and connectivity to the greater Longmont bicycle network. Adding a dedicated bike path to these built streets is not always feasible as we would likely need to purchase private property to meet our new street standards. Our ultimate goal is to create a safe, seamless, multimodal, and equitable transportation system for the people in Longmont, at a cost that is acceptable to the taxpayers and policy makers of the City.

You can learn more about Longmont’s multimodal plan by visiting bit.ly/envisionlongmont.

Thanks for reaching out! Yes, we agree, the trees are such an important part of Coffman's character. One of the main goals of the project is to not only preserve but enhance the character along the Coffman Street corridor and our trees play an important role in fulfilling that goal. 

We're currently developing design concepts, all of which include the preservation of as many trees along the corridor as possible (and potentially the planting of new trees). We're working with an arborist to help us understand how many trees are on the corridor and what kind. Of course, whether it's because of a tree's health or species (e.g., Ash), or the project, some may need to be removed. But, our goal is to have more trees and landscaping as a result of this project.

 As the project progresses, the design concepts will include more info on the tree canopy -- and we'll be looking for feedback from the public. Please stay in touch and stay engaged.