Peña Boulevard traffic; Denver International Airport top man says "It's bad and it's getting worse"
Several times a week, Phil Washington, the CEO of Denver International Airport, gets behind the wheel of his car and drives to his airport office via Peña Boulevard, an 11-mile corridor connecting Interstate 70 with the airport. He has seen and experienced what thousands of other commuters deal with often -- severe congestion.
"It's bad, and it's getting worse," said Washington.
In public presentations, the airport has said, "The existing two lanes no longer serve the demands of Peña Boulevard. The travel time has become increasingly unreliable." The airport is currently engaged in studying about 20 options and gathering public input to address the Peña Boulevard congestion, ranging from high occupancy vehicle lanes to adding a frontage road for local traffic, to getting more drivers out of their cars and on the RTD A line train to the airport.
When asked if adding additional lanes might be an option, Washington said, "The door is not shut on anything."
Since the airport opened, traffic on Peña has increased by 80%. In 2023, the airport served just under 78 million passengers. That number is projected to rise to 120 million by 2045, according to the airport. And residential and commercial development along the route has added to the congestion. Traffic times have tripled in recent years according to a study of traffic patterns along the corridor.
"I'm convinced we have to do something to improve Peña," said Washington.
In a wide-ranging interview, the airport CEO also talked about another major change at the airport; officials are moving forward with a plan to consolidate all of the airport rental car agencies into a single, massive building called a CONRAC, or consolidated rent-a-car facility.
Most car rental agencies are currently clustered along 144 acres off of East 78th Avenue on airport property. The CONRAC plan would consolidate all the rental car companies into a one-stop shop with more than 17,000 spaces for rental cars. The covered facility would consist of four or five levels, according to Washington, and the design process is expected to start late this year or early in 2026.
He said the centralized facility would take rental car shuttles off the road and lessen congestion.
"This really, really makes things a lot easier for the passenger experience," said Washington.
The cost? "It's not going to be cheap," said Washington, "But the benefits outweigh the costs." Asked about the price tag, he said early estimates are in the $700 million to $1 billion range.
Washington said some of that would be paid for from rental car user fees, which are currently $10 per rental car per day. He said while that will be a large part of the funding, the airport has to come up with another four or five funding sources.
One option Washington shared is placing a "revenue generating opportunity" on the 144 acres currently occupied by the rental car companies. While he wouldn't say what that opportunity would look like, he did say, "We have a pretty good idea of how we are going to do this. We know how to do this." Once plans are secured, the CONRAC facility would take about three to four years to build, according to the airport CEO.
More preliminary than the CONRAC is an idea to provide a redundant system for passengers when the airport's undergroud trains go down.
"It's pure chaos when the train goes down," said Washington, "I don't like it."
He said the most recent contract for the train operator requires the trains to be operational 99.86% of the time.
"I do think we need redundancy," said Washington.
Responding to a request for proposals, contractors have submitted plans for everything from tunnels between the terminal and the concourses to massive bridges to concourses for when the airport underground trains don't work. Washington said in the next 90 to 120 days, he will make a recommendation to the mayor and city council on what to do about a redundancy system.
"We have those ideas and are mulling over those ideas," he said.
