Article Contributed on: 6/21/2007 11:35:26 AM
Joel Klein, of Centennial, asks: There is a strange looking concrete grey building around 6th Avenue and I-25 that has a very different architectural style. It has a bridge attached to it that does not go anywhere with a very unusual ornaments on it. I have always wondered what the history of the structure was?
Glad you asked, Joel. I spoke with
Carlos Guerra at Denver Wastewater Management about the building at 2000 W. Third Ave.
Guerra said that the building was built in 1991 with revenues that the department collected all by itself. About 260 employees work there, with half of them in the field maintaining sewer lines and doing other outside work, like collected water samples. The other half of employees actually work in the office, doing work as varied as customer service to engineering.
In addition, all street permits are issued in the building, as the department of public works transitions into a sort of headquarters for all city of Denver right-of-way activites.
As for the bridge, it was actually built in the late 1800s along Third Avenue, which prior to the building of I-25 was a major thoroughfare in Denver, according to Guerra. The bridge was abandoned after I-25 cut it in two but it stood until the city of Denver aquired the propery.
Denver, which has a 1 percent public art requirement for capital projects, took the old bridge on the property, beefed it up and commissioned an artist to create a public art piece -- a pond with sculptures on either side of it that recirculate water.
According to their Web site, the city of Denver division maintains 1,500 miles of sewers and 550 miles of storm drains.
Have a stumper? Ask your question and Dot will do its best to answer it.
Click here to submit your question.