Rock Creek Parkway

Hi everyone –

I wanted to give an update on the Board’s discussions about Rock Creek Parkway so far, and what the plans may look like for its future.  Rock Creek Parkway is a critical roadway that bisects Superior and we want to make sure we get it right.

RCP Needs Reconstruction, Which Will Cost $10 to $12 million With or Without Design Changes

As a starting point, roads have limited useful lives and Rock Creek Parkway has reached the end of its useful life.  A road like Rock Creek Parkway (if well constructed) should last about 30 years and Rock Creek Parkway is older than that.  

Rock Creek Parkway was planned and constructed by Richmond more than 30 years ago when the Rock Creek subdivision was built.  It wasn’t constructed particularly well to begin with and needs to be reconstructed (in other words, filling potholes or doing a “mill and overlay” where you scrape the top level of asphalt and repave it won’t fix its structural problems).  Instead, we need to go down to the base, install new subgrade, and perform a full roadway reconstruction (like we just did with Coalton and Indiana).

This isn’t just my opinion or the opinion of Town Staff.  The Town contracts with road engineers who periodically grade the conditions of roads throughout Town on a scale of 0-100.  A grade between 25-40 is “Poor” condition, 10-25 is “Very Poor” condition, and below 10 is “Failed” condition. 

The sections of Rock Creek Parkway that we’re looking at with their respective scores as of 2023 are as follows: 

• from McCaslin to Wiggins (14)
• From Wiggins to Pitkin (31)
• from Pitkin to Indiana (25)
• From Indiana to to Coal Creek (33)
• From S. Coal Creek to 88th (17)

Obviously, road conditions are not static and they deteriorate over time from ongoing use and particularly, from winter weather conditions.  Needless to say, in 2024, the conditions of these sections of Rock Creek Parkway will be worse than they are today.

Road projects are extremely expensive.  They range in price from slurry and chip seals (the cheapest) to mill and overlays (more expensive) to full reconstruction (most expensive).  The image above shows prices from 2019… and they are even higher today given recent inflation.

Also, what works for a local road won’t work for a major arterial — like Rock Creek Parkway.  And, the price we’ve been quoted to simply reconstruct Rock Creek Parkway from McCaslin to 88th Street (without making any changes to its design) is in the $10 to $12 million range.  So, we want to make sure we get this right before we spend substantial taxpayer dollars on a project of this scale.

Original Design has Caused Problems

In addition to the fact that Rock Creek Parkway wasn’t particularly well constructed to begin with, it’s important to note that it was also built in anticipation of a much bigger Rock Creek Ranch subdivision.  Originally, the Rock Creek Ranch subdivision was supposed to be double its current size and would have extended west of McCaslin onto land that is now Boulder County open space.  That expansion didn’t happen, but the roadway was built to handle a much bigger Superior.

Based on the conclusions of our traffic engineer consultants, as well as the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, the traffic volumes on Rock Creek Parkway do not justify or necessitate a 4-lane roadway.  As a point of comparison, McCaslin Boulevard handles significantly higher volumes and speeds each day and is a 2-lane road throughout most of Superior.  And If we were starting over and considering designing a Rock Creek Parkway that would serve the area, it’s highly unlikely that we’d approve a 4-lane road when a 2-lane road would suffice.

Everyone is Speeding Because of its Design and Slope and Simply Repaving RCP Will INCREASE Speeds

One of the major concerns with Rock Creek Parkway is that a majority of drivers are speeding.  The 85th percentile of speeds at various locations on Rock Creek Parkway is about 10 mph faster than the posted speed limits.  Based on conversations with our road and traffic consultants, as well as with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, the speeding is a result of two main problems: Rock Creek Parkway is (a) wide and (b) substantially sloped downward from McCaslin to 88th Street.  

Over the past year, we have worked with consultants on the Rock Creek Parkway Repurposing Study (more on this below) and they raised the concern that if we simply reconstruct Rock Creek Parkway as it exists today — as it was originally designed — speeds will likely increase.  This is because drivers don’t simply drive according to the posted speed limits, they drive according to the conditions of the road and how the road “feels.”  If it feels “safe” to travel at a certain speed, that’s typically how drivers will drive.  Certainly, law enforcement can help to some extent, but we can’t post a Sheriff’s deputy vehicle on Rock Creek Parkway at all times and in enough locations along Rock Creek Parkway to get people to slow down.  Put simply, a smoother reconstructed Rock Creek Parkway (coupled with its slope and width) will cause people to travel even faster than they are today.

Safety Concerns

There are a number of concerns about the safety of Rock Creek Parkway.  Between 2016 and 2022, there have been 62 crashes involving vehicles, 4 involving bikes, and 1 involving pedestrians on Rock Creek Parkway between McCaslin and Coalton.

The width of Rock Creek Parkway is not safe for kids who cross it as they travel to and from Superior Elementary School.  It’s also challenging for pedestrians who are trying to cross it to get to Purple Park and the North Pool/Tennis Courts. 

In addition, based on the speeds traveled on Rock Creek Parkway, the current design of the roadway does not meet Federal Highway Administration guidelines for bike lanes.  Under FHWA guidelines, Rock Creek Parkway should either have a separated bike lane or a shared multi-use path that sufficiently separates cars from bikes/pedestrians.  Currently, Rock Creek Parkway has a bike lane adjacent to vehicular traffic, contrary to FHWA guidelines based on the speeds traveled on the road.

In addition, stop signs, traffic lights, and speed bumps won’t work either.  Speed bumps/humps aren’t recommended for roads with posted speed limits above 30 mph because they do damage to vehicles that hit them.  According to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, stop signs can actually result in higher speeds as drivers accelerate quickly out of them to try to make up for slowing down for the stop.  Traffic signals and roundabouts were also considered, but are unlikely to sufficiently reduce speeds and would be expensive to implement.  They also don’t sufficiently address bicycle safety in a shared roadway.

Community Engagement

For the past 7 months, the Town has worked with a consultant on the Rock Creek Parkway Repurposing Survey.  That survey involved multiple public meetings, an online survey, informational kiosks at town events, and reports to the Town Board in public meetings, all in an effort to educate the public about the concerns about Rock Creek Parkway and to solicit feedback on potential solutions.  We gathered a lot of community input.

Survey responses were varied and that makes the Town Board’s job of making a decision that much harder.  It’s easy to make a decision on something when everyone’s in agreement.  It’s much harder when you know that there are a lot of people who are opposed to the decision.  That said, a majority of Superior residents have concerns about the safety of the corridor.  Those concerns are primarily about speeding and its safety impacts.  Residents desire safer and more comfortable crossings for walkers and bicycles, especially for children.  There’s concern for turning at intersections and a desire for safer and more comfortable bike lanes.  There is also understandable concern for the ability to evacuate quickly given the Town’s experience during the Marshall Fire.  That said, a large minority of respondents felt the roadway should remain as-is.       

Board Considerations

The Town Board wants to get this decision right.  We understand the importance of this road to the Town and the scale of this project to the Town Budget.  That’s why we’ve been spending the time gathering public input and exploring potential design changes, because we didn’t want to spend $10-$12 million of taxpayer dollars without first exploring if changes should be made.  We certainly didn’t want to make any problems worse (i.e., increase speeding with a smoother road surface and make the road less safe).  

Here’s a cross-section of Rock Creek Parkway in its current configuration:

Here’s a cross-section of Rock Creek Parkway with its proposed redesign.

As you can see from the illustrations above, we have 29 feet of roadway surface in each direction.  Currently, we have two vehicle drive lanes totaling 25 feet (a 13-foot & a 12-foot lane) and then a 4-foot bike lane.  The redesign proposes a single 10-foot vehicle drive lane, a 12-foot buffer, and an expanded 7-foot bike lane.  The proposed redesign maintains the full 29 feet of paved roadway surface (which could be used in an emergency/evacuation — more on this below).

One interesting aspect of the potential redesign is that it could potentially result in upwards of a $1 million in savings if we didn’t need to reconstruct the road surface at the same levels (essentially reinforcing the subgrade below the vehicle lanes to a higher degree than we would where the buffer lane/bike lanes would be).  

But we also kept the experience of the Marshall Fire front and center in our discussions.  What we learned from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office was that the traffic problems residents experienced evacuating during the Marshall Fire weren’t caused by Rock Creek Parkway, they were caused by how traffic was flowing at the intersection of Coalton Road and with traffic intersections along Coalton Road in Broomfield.  Rock Creek Parkway, even as a 2-lane road, would be sufficient to handle the traffic volumes to evacuate Superior — but Broomfield needs to make sure its traffic lights and intersections aren’t preventing traffic from flowing altogether.  But, just to be sure, the design we’re looking at — with the large buffer lanes between the vehicle and bike lanes — preserves 4-lanes of travel on Rock Creek Parkway for emergencies and evacuations.  

In any event, no decision has been made by the Town Board and nothing is final until the contracts are awarded and work commences.  On December 11, 2023, the Town Board will consider a contract award for the design of a reconfigured Rock Creek Parkway.  If approved, the Town Board would need to award the contract for construction, which would occur in the March/April timeframe.  

Both of these steps will occur in public Town Board meetings and the public will have the opportunity to give public comment at those meetings.  You are also free to send us emails with your thoughts in advance if you can’t make the public meetings.

A couple additional comments about the design.  While the design still needs to be finalized (assuming the Board approves the design contract in December), there are no plans to remove the turning lanes off of Rock Creek Parkway (I had heard some concern that this was the case).  Turning on/off of Rock Creek Parkway should be made easier as a result of this project because there will be fewer lanes of traffic to cross.  I’ve also heard the concerns about traffic and the challenges parents face with dealing with pickups/drop offs at our local schools.  As we consider any changes to Rock Creek Parkway, we will keep those higher trafficked times of days (rush hour, school pickups & drop offs) in consideration.  We don’t want to make it more challenging for parents to be able to get their kids to school on time due to the proposed redesign.  One possibility that I’d like to explore is if we can do a “test run” of this design before making any permanent changes.  That way we can all get a sense of how this could work or not work for the community.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to continuing to engage with the public on this issue going forward.