The Laporte Avenue corridor between Fishback Avenue and Sunset Street currently has several gaps in bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Many locations lack sidewalk and curbs, and the bike lanes are often narrow and not well defined. The corridor also provides access to Poudre High School and has significant bicycle and pedestrian activity with the proximity of the school and residential neighborhoods. There have been several near misses and at least one serious accident involving bicyclists and pedestrians in recent years. There are also two deficient bridges on Laporte Avenue over the New Mercer Canal, just north of Grandview Cemetery.

The project corridor is part of the City’s Low Stress Bicycle Network and is recognized by the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization (NFRMPO) as a high priority for bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

City Staff have gathered feedback from stakeholders, including Poudre School District, nearby residents, and property/business owners. The City also held an open house in October 2019. There is widespread support for the proposed improvements.

There are two projects scheduled to complete the improvements to Laporte, the first is the Laporte Bridges Project which began construction in November 2022, and the second is the Laporte Corridor Project which begins construction in spring of 2024.

A separate project will fill the remaining gap in bicycle facilities on Laporte Ave. from Fishback Ave. to Wood St. in summer 2024. To learn more about the project, visit https://www.fcgov.com/fcmoves/current-projects and click the “Laporte Ave.” tab.

On October 9, 2019, the City hosted a community open house to seek preliminary feedback about the Laporte Avenue redesign. Materials presented at the open house are below.

Project Overview

Existing Conditions

Bicycle and Pedestrian Facility Options

Roadway Cross-section Options

Bridge Precedents

Protected Intersection Concept - Laporte & Taft Hill

Concept Design - Corridor Map

The two bridges on Laporte over the New Mercer ditch just north of Grandview Cemetery are past their design lifespan and are not wide enough to accommodate additional modes of travel. The replacement of these bridges needs to happen when the irrigation canal is not running, so the City decided to make their replacement a separate project, the Laporte Bridges Project. This project will replace and widen the two bridges, and add large, separated bike and pedestrian pathways on either side of Laporte from the 7-Eleven to Stodgy Brewery.