The 16th Street Mall is open again from Wazee to Lawrence streets after being closed for construction for months, and the smaller granite tiles that now pave the street are already getting a taste of city wear and tear. Previous tiles along the mall were larger than their replacements, so the Partnership is testing methods to keep the new tiles — still in the iconic rattlesnake-inspired pattern — as clean as possible, which is harder than it may sound.
“We will be keeping them spick and span, but there are some modifications we are testing to ensure we have the right cleaning process in place,” says Britt Diehl, senior director of external affairs, marketing and communications for the downtown booster group.
Construction on the project began in 2022. At the time, it was meant to conclude in 2024, but delays have pushed the likely completion date to fall of next year, according to the city’s website detailing 16th Street Mall construction. The project was originally slated to cost $149 million; Denver’s 16th Street Mall dashboard now projects a $174.6 million final cost, with $124.4 million spent thus far.
One part of the infrastructure upgrades: the granite pavers lining the pedestrian-forward street.
In 2019, then-project manager Brad Pinkerton told Westword those pavers hadn’t held up as well as the city had hoped. The new pavers were placed on top of a sub-surface system designed to help them last longer and need less maintenance.
Additionally, the old pavers became extremely slick in the winter when snow or ice coated the mall, so the new granite was designed to be rougher, offering more traction.
The original paving pattern was designed by the legendary I.M. Pei, whose landmark contributions included work on the Louvre, among other things. In 2022, nonprofit Historic Denver raised concerns that the use of smaller paving tiles plus different designers for transit and pedestrian corridors would compromise the historic integrity of the mall's design.
The smaller tiles also required that the DDP adjust its cleaning methods. Power washing used to work on the old tiles, but cleaning granite with water pressure comes with a fine line, according to Diehl.
“The BID is testing cleaning methods for the granite,” she says. “As for pressure washing, specifically, we’re currently testing the use of pressure washers on the new granite surface with the goal of identifying a cadence for cleaning and pounds per square inch (PSI) level that is sustainable in terms of water utilization and maintains the integrity of the surface.”
16th Street Mall Construction Updates
Along with fine-tuning the power-washing strength, the DDP is employing small street-sweeping machines to tidy both the pedestrian and transit lanes of the 16th Street Mall. There are also new furnishings installed in amenity areas, such as seating, planters and play structures.“Just like trees are being taken care of in new ways to promote longevity, we’re doing the same with the pavers and other facets of 16th, too,” Diehl says.
The city removed the 143 trees, mainly honey locusts, from the mall with plans to replace them with over 200 healthier trees like Overcup Oak, Swamp White Oak, Honey Locust, Kentucky Coffee, Accolade Elm and State Street Maple. The trees will be able to access un-compacted soil rather than sitting in individual planting boxes, as they did before.
The Downtown BID also ensured that streetlights were functional across Denver’s downtown, notifying Xcel Energy of over fifty light outages so the utility could replace the bulbs with LED fixtures.
The Free MallRide will return to its route from Union Station to Curtis Street in the second half of October, and operators are training now to prepare for the adjustment. Currently, the Free MallRide has been diverted to 15th and 17th streets; it will remain that way from Curtis to Civic Center Station until the required phases of construction are completed, though pedestrians can still access businesses along the strip.
According to Denver Department of Transportation & Infrastructure spokesperson Nancy Kuhn, the city anticipates that it will open two more blocks of the mall, between Lawrence and Curtis streets, in October to bring the total number of blocks completed up to six. From there, there will be nine more blocks to go.
