Since July, Denver has been tearing up the streets just south of Cory-Merrill, across I-25, and the work is scheduled to run until late 2027. Over the past year, many of the places those streets lead to have also closed, relaunched or announced replacements. So the city is rebuilding the route to a set of destinations that is changing while the work goes on. By the time the last crosswalk is painted, the stops at the end of a Cory-Merrill walk, bike ride or drive to the DU and Colorado Station areas will be a different list than they were in 2025.
Two Miles of Buchtel and Five Intersections
The official name is the Buchtel Boulevard & Evans Intersection Improvements project. It's part of Denver's University Safer Streets program, and the city's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure started it in July 2026. The work covers a two-mile stretch of Buchtel Boulevard from west of University Boulevard to east of Colorado Boulevard, ending on Colorado Center Drive at Birch Street. It adds protected bike lanes, sidewalks and pedestrian crossings along that whole route.
Five intersections are being rebuilt:
- Buchtel and University
- Buchtel and St. Paul
- Buchtel and Colorado
- Evans and University
- Evans and Colorado
At those intersections, crews are realigning travel lanes and replacing traffic signals to cut down on turning conflicts. They're also adding new crosswalks next to RTD's Colorado Station, along with new lighting and wayfinding signs along the corridor. The city says St. Paul and Buchtel will get a full signal rebuild because extra funding came through.
The Colorado Department of Transportation's project page lists the construction cost at $24.2 million and the contractor as Ames Construction. Funding comes from the voter-approved Elevate Denver bond. The plan behind it goes back years. The city ran public design meetings in 2021, 2023 and 2024 before construction started.
This Week's Closures, and Where the Detour Sends You
For Sunday, Oct. 11 through Saturday, Oct. 17, the city's weekly work notice lists these closures:
- Buchtel Boulevard, University to St. Paul: closed to through traffic around the clock, with detours posted to Evans Avenue. The left turn from southbound University onto eastbound Buchtel is also closed.
- Northbound University Boulevard: the right lane is closed from East Jewell Avenue to the on-ramp for southbound I-25. The on-ramp itself stays open.
- South Buchtel sidewalk: closed to people walking and biking, with detours to the north side and the trail.
On foot, there's a new ADA-compliant detour at the southeast corner of University and Buchtel that handles east-west crossings using the south crosswalk. You can reach it from DU's Lot 108, and the city says to allow an extra one to two minutes.
The next change is close. The city says work will move from the east side of the University and Buchtel intersection to the west side "around Oct. 20," with confirmed dates to follow. The same page calls the timing "mid-October" elsewhere, so the exact day is still open. Regular work hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, with some overnight and weekend shifts. Single-lane closures and traffic shifts can happen between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays.
The detour route matters for the rest of this story. When Buchtel closes, traffic goes to Evans Avenue, and the stretch of Evans near DU is exactly where the restaurant turnover has been heaviest.
Evans Avenue Lost a Diner and Is Getting Barbecue
At the University and Evans corner, the biggest change happened before any construction started. Pete's University Park Cafe at 2345 E. Evans Ave. closed on Sunday, November 9, 2025, after three decades on that corner, Westword reported. A week after it closed, BusinessDen reported that Canvas Credit Union planned to move its branch at 2027 S. University Blvd. into the former diner. We haven't been able to confirm that the new branch is open yet.
A few blocks west, at 1737 E. Evans Ave., a restaurant is moving in. Post Oak BBQ, which started in the Berkeley neighborhood in 2019, is building a second location in the 3,000-square-foot space that used to be Sawa, a Mediterranean buffet that closed earlier in 2026, according to BusinessDen reporting published in The Denver Post in May. The owner said the existing kitchen made the space attractive, put the buildout at about $750,000 with no outside funding, and said he hoped to open by October. October is here, but there's no confirmed opening date yet.
Farther west, Convict Coffee lists its Evans shop at 1135 E. Evans Ave. as open and posts weekly hours on its website. In November 2025, Westword reported that a burrito shop, El Burrito y El Burrote, planned to open in the same building. We haven't confirmed whether it has opened.
Address | What was there | What's reported now | Status as of mid-October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
2345 E. Evans Ave. | Pete's University Park Cafe, closed Nov. 2025 | Canvas Credit Union branch planned | Not confirmed open |
1737 E. Evans Ave. | Sawa, closed earlier in 2026 | Post Oak BBQ second location | Hoped to open by October; date not confirmed |
1135 E. Evans Ave. | New building tenants | Convict Coffee; El Burrito y El Burrote planned | Coffee shop listed as open; burrito shop not confirmed |
Two of the three addresses are on the stretch that DU-area construction depends on. The University and Evans intersection is one of the five being rebuilt, and Evans is the posted detour for the Buchtel closure. The city says access to driveways and businesses will stay open throughout.
The Food Hall at the End of the New Crosswalks
The eastern end of the project ends at Colorado Center, where the new crosswalks by Colorado Station will sit. One of the more substantial relaunches in the area happened there.
Junction Food & Drink first opened at Colorado Center on October 7, 2020, as Westword covered at the time. It reopened on October 24, 2025, after FireTen Hospitality took over operations from National Food Hall Solutions. Westword's report on the relaunch described nine kitchens plus the Junction Bar and named vendors including Bowl'd Masala, Ebisu Ramen & Sushi, Confetti Confections, Just Kool Jamaican Kitchen, R!OT, Lulala and Pizza & Pide. The lineup has kept changing since then. Westword's June 2026 openings roundup added Cafe Crepe and Shawarma Max. The hall's current vendor page also lists Sonder Coffee & Tea, Lazo Empanadas and Que Rico!.
The practical details from Junction's visitor page:
- Address: 2000 S. Colorado Blvd., Building IV, next to Dave & Buster's and the United Artists theater
- Hours: Sunday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Getting there: steps from Colorado Station light rail, with garage and surface-lot parking
- Seating: open seating with no reservations, plus a dog-friendly patio
Dave & Buster's at the same address lists current daily hours and October 2026 events on its location page. When CDOT says the finished project will give "enhanced connectivity to shops, businesses, and the RTD Colorado Station," this is the cluster it's describing.
The Train Half of the Trip Changed Too
Both stations at the ends of the corridor are seeing service changes. RTD's University of Denver Station is at 1901 E. Buchtel Blvd. and is served by Route 24 and the E and T lines. Colorado Station, at 4300 E. Colorado Center Dr. near Evans and I-25, has bus routes 21, 40 and 46 plus the E and T lines.
The H Line has been suspended since June 7, 2026. RTD said the final phases of its Downtown Rail Reconstruction Project left no track capacity to reroute the H to Union Station. RTD's September 2026 service changes, which took effect September 27, extended the temporary T Line northbound to Alameda Station.
Fourteen Months From This Side of I-25
The city lists completion as late 2027. CDOT gives a more specific end date of December 2027, about fourteen months from now. The city notes that construction schedules depend on the weather and can change.
The reason for the project is a crossing problem that Cory-Merrill knows well. The city's 2017 University/Colorado mobility study called I-25 a barrier for pedestrians and found that, in its study area at the time, Franklin and Steele were the only crossings over the highway that worked well for bikes and walkers. The Buchtel work doesn't add a highway crossing. It improves what's on the far side once you get over.
Turnover is happening on the north side too. Home Team Deli had opened by late July at 1233 S. Colorado Blvd., in the former Wahoo's space on Cory-Merrill's eastern edge, as Naked Denver reported.
The Cory-Merrill Neighborhood Association's next general assembly is Wednesday, October 21, at 6 p.m. at Kirk of the Bonnie Brae, 1201 S. Steele St. That's the day after the city's projected move to the west side of University and Buchtel. The association's Halloween candy station is set for Saturday, October 31, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the west corner of Milwaukee and Arizona. For construction questions, the project hotline is 720-998-6223.
When the city finishes the protected bike lanes and the Colorado Station crosswalks, a short Cory-Merrill trip south will reach different places than it did in 2025. If you want to know how changes like these on the DU and Colorado Station side are showing up in home values north of I-25, Perfect Denver Homes can walk you through what nearby sales are showing. Get Your Free Home Valuation and see where your Cory-Merrill home stands as this corridor changes.
