If you live in Washington Park — or even just travel along East Alameda Avenue — brace yourself. Months of disruptive construction, followed by unsightly white bollards and painfully long traffic signal backups, are on the way. And despite widespread concern from longtime residents, local businesses, and daily commuters, city leaders are forging ahead anyway.

As neighbors and local business owners, we were stunned to learn that Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) plans to remove traffic lanes this fall along the busy stretch of East Alameda Avenue between South Grant Street and South Franklin Street.

Just like we’ve seen in other parts of the city, DOTI’s so-called “improvements” will also include plastic bollards to block left turns at some intersections, while adding dedicated left-turn lanes at others, creating even more driver confusion and congestion.

Alameda is one of the most important east-west routes in the metro area. From Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora to Green Mountain Park in Lakewood, it connects workers, students, families, and customers to key destinations — including our small businesses.

By making it harder to travel this corridor, DOTI is pushing drivers to divert to nearby residential streets, which will increase traffic and put pedestrians, cyclists, and families at greater risk.

We’ve already seen this happen in other neighborhoods: traffic is pushed off main roads and onto side streets never designed to handle it. In our case, that means quiet roads like Virginia Avenue — a street used daily by park visitors, joggers, dog walkers, and kids. Once Alameda becomes a bottleneck, frustrated drivers will seek shortcuts. And that means less safety, more speeding, and more danger in our neighborhoods.

Making matters worse, at a recent meeting, DOTI admitted they based their plans on outdated traffic volume data, ignoring the surge of new development nearby. That’s a glaring oversight.

Within just 2 miles of this project, the City Council has already approved at least 1,500 new apartments and condos, with even more on the way.

These new residents will depend on East Alameda Avenue — but instead, they’ll find gridlock.

This plan doesn’t solve congestion — it shifts it. And that will create new problems the city will need to fix later, wasting taxpayer dollars and reducing the quality of life. As both residents and business owners in Washington Park, we worry this project, from start to finish, will make it extremely difficult for residents and visitors to get to their homes and to all of the businesses they love and rely on.

There is still time to stop this short-sighted project. Visit ActForAlameda.com to learn more and sign our letter urging Mayor Mike Johnston to reconsider.

Together, we can push for road changes that truly improve safety — without harming businesses or neighborhoods.

Kim Kolesar is the owner of P.S. Denver, a Pilates studio in West Washington Park, and lives a block off of E. Alameda Ave in the area where changes are planned. Garrett Ladd is co-owner of Blackbird Public House, a beloved neighborhood restaurant at Alameda and Downing.