Muller served the design-build team on the reconstruction of Interstate 70 through central Denver (Central 70) as the lead engineer for traffic signalization and timing and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) – tolling design and as drainage engineer on the western portion of the project.

This work included design of 12 miles of new CDOT ITS infrastructure and CDOT and City and County of Denver fiber optic communications in a dense, urban corridor. The ITS infrastructure includes every type of technology that CDOT currently deploys, including electronic signs used for lane-by-lane guidance, weather monitors, cameras, ramp metering, traffic detectors, and infrastructure for future connected vehicle devices.

This work also included design of traffic signalization at 37 Denver intersections between Brighton Boulevard and Peoria Street. Muller provided new signal timing plans for all 37 Denver intersections, including for the new network of roads around the new covered portion of I-70. There are four at-grade signalized intersections that required coordination with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). All intersections used stop bar video detection, with some requiring advanced queue video detection.

The Muller team designed six detention ponds, including coordination of retaining wall designs, inlet structures, outlet structures, and maintenance access paths. This included the large hydraulic structures for the west side major drainage work. These structures included large concrete box culverts (CBCs), buried vaults, elaborate grated outlet structures, retaining walls, and emergency overflow structures. The work included the design of a 14-foot by 8.5-foot cast-in-place CBC beneath the UPRR railyard, requiring coordination and permits from the UPRR. This structure was designed to be constructed in five phases and supports E80 rail loads under less than 24 inches of cover.

Muller’s work also included a very detailed offsite system evaluation at each intersection from Madison Street to the York Street Pond to make sure that the team was correctly sizing the main interceptor. The Muller team completed the drainage design for the Park Cover over the highway and the viaduct drainage retrofit between I-25 and Brighton Boulevard.

This project was designed on a fast-track schedule, and Muller coordinated closely with the complete design-build team, CDOT, and Denver to blend our design services with all other project elements for this $1.2 billion project.