2.  The Fort Collins Parkway

In 1979, the City of Fort Collins began a study to redesign the eastern portion of the Fort Collins Expressway as a parkway type roadway facility with signalized intersections instead of the limited access expressway previously recommended. There were three major reasons for the redesign:

• The Parkway is more consistent with projected long-range traffic demand than the Expressway. Projected traffic volumes for the facility in 2000 are 30,000 vehicles per day. The capacity for an Expressway is greater than 50,000 vehicles per day and the Parkway capacity is approximately 40,000 vehicles per day.

• A Parkway would not bisect the city in the manner of an Expressway. The Expressway’s limited access provides indirect access to adjacent land uses only at the interchanges. Access to adjacent land uses can be provided better through a Parkway’s signalized intersection design.

• The Expressway’s estimated total cost was $34 million dollars. The Parkway could be built for $22 to $24 million dollars (1979 dollars).

The preferred alignment of the Fort Collins Parkway was similar to the Fort Collins Expressway from LaPorte to Lemay Avenue. The difference with the Fort Collins Parkway recommended alignment (Alignment 2B) is that east of Vine Drive and Lemay Avenue, the alignment follows the airport and intersects with SH 14 near Summit View Drive. This alignment is shown in Figure 2.

As a result, Fort Collins City Council authorized the update of the City’s Master Street Plan in the northeast quadrant in 1980. The North Front Range Transportation and Air Quality Planning Council also included a Fort Collins Parkway alignment in their 2010 Network Map as part of the 1990 Regional Transportation Plan. Partial funding of $5.86 million dollars was ultimately withdrawn by the State Highway Commission in 1979 as a result of redesigning the eastern portion of this project from a limited access Expressway to a Parkway. A portion of this funding was returned in the 1980’s in order to construct the LaPorte portion of the project.

The preferred parkway alignment was determined to be non-viable in 1984 as a result of the removal of the railroad switching tracks out of the downtown area to a location adjacent to Vine Drive as well as Fort Collins City Council’s adoption of a re-alignment of Lemay Avenue around the Andersonville and Alta Vista neighborhoods.