The Corner by DU Is Under Construction Until Late 2027, and Hockey Season Runs Right Through It

From mid-November to mid-December, DU's calendar is at its busiest. There are men's hockey weekends at Magness Arena, holiday concerts at Gates Concert Hall and Thanksgiving morning skating at Joy Burns Arena. Almost all of it is reached through the intersection of University and Buchtel boulevards. Denver began rebuilding that corner in July, and the work will continue for most of the next two winters.

The city expects to finish the Buchtel Boulevard & Evans Intersection Improvements in late 2027, roughly 18 months after crews started. That means event season and the construction schedule now share the same few hundred feet of pavement. On a game night, the useful question is which side of the intersection is open this week.

What the City Is Rebuilding, and Why Here

The project is part of Denver's University Safer Streets Program. The city's project page says the goal is to turn Buchtel Boulevard into a complete street, with better safety, traffic flow and pedestrian connections to nearby businesses, schools and transit stops. The scope covers two miles of road and five intersections:

• Protected bike lanes, sidewalks and pedestrian crossings along Buchtel from west of University Boulevard to east of Colorado Boulevard, ending on Colorado Center Drive at Birch Street
• Rebuilt intersections at Buchtel and University, Buchtel and St. Paul, and Buchtel and Colorado
• Rebuilt intersections at Evans and University, and Evans and Colorado
• Realigned travel lanes and new traffic signals to reduce turning conflicts
• New crosswalks next to RTD's Colorado Station, plus new lighting and wayfinding along the corridor

The project grew out of years of planning. According to the city, studies including Denver Moves and the 2017 University/Colorado Multi-station Plan and Mobility Study found that community members wanted better connections and safer streets around the University and Colorado station areas. The corners being rebuilt are the same ones a crowd uses to walk from a parking lot to the Ritchie Center.

Lot 108 Is Where the Two Calendars Meet

The city's project page treats DU event nights as their own traffic problem. Home hockey games at the Ritchie Center started October 10, and the city expects more congestion on the detour routes plus heavy foot traffic to and from DU's Lot 108.

The pedestrian detour is at the southeast corner of University and Buchtel. It runs north and south from Lot 108 and connects to the south crosswalk for east-west crossings. It is fully ADA-compliant, with ramps at both ends, and the city says to allow an extra one to two minutes to get around it. Two minutes is nothing on a quiet weekday. With an arena crowd heading for the same south crosswalk at the same moment, it is the part of the evening most worth planning for. The city asks pedestrians to stay on the marked path and not to walk in traffic lanes or cross construction barriers. Other sidewalk closures and bike and pedestrian restrictions remain in place within the project area.

The city also says these event-night detours will stay in place until the east side of the University and Buchtel intersection reopens and work moves to the west side. That switch is the next scheduled change.

The Mid-November Handoff

During the first week of November, Buchtel was closed around the clock from University to St. Paul, with detours posted to Evans Avenue. The left turn from southbound University onto eastbound Buchtel was closed, and the right northbound lane of University was closed from East Jewell to the southbound I-25 on-ramp. The on-ramp itself stayed open.

The city's plan moves the work to the west side of the University and Buchtel intersection around mid-November. Southbound University is expected to have right-lane closures, and Buchtel is expected to reopen to St. Paul at the same time. That timing overlaps with the Lindenwood series on November 13 and 14, so the first hockey weekend after the shift may have a different traffic pattern than the October games did. The city says construction schedules depend on weather and can change.

A few rules hold for the whole project:

• Crew hours: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, with some overnight and weekend work expected
• Lane closures: single-lane closures with traffic shifts and delays, usually 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays
• Access: driveways and businesses stay reachable throughout

Because the daytime closures run 9 to 3, a weekday 7:30 p.m. concert at Gates Concert Hall comes after that window. Friday and Saturday hockey nights fall in the period when the city has said some weekend work is possible.

Five Weeks of Dates Around the Intersection

Here is what's on the calendar from publish day through mid-December. Each venue is reached through the same corner.

The skating sessions are the easiest of these to plan around. The Ritchie Center's ice programs page says public skate at Joy Burns Arena is open to the public, requires a reservation, includes skate rental, and costs $16.50 per session. It also notes that schedules can change. The Thanksgiving session ends at 12:30 p.m., early enough to skate and still get home for a late-afternoon dinner. The North Dakota series and the Holly Jolly family concert both fall on Saturday, December 5. That is the most crowded date on the list for the blocks around Lot 108.

Evans Avenue Is Changing Hands Too

The other street in the project name is turning over as well. Two long-running Evans Avenue addresses near the University intersection have new tenants in the past year.

The first is 2345 E. Evans. Pete's University Park Café served its last meals there in November 2025, after about three decades. BusinessDen reported that permits filed with the city show Canvas Credit Union moving in. The Lone Tree-based credit union is relocating its existing branch from 2027 S. University Blvd., a few doors away, into the 2,225-square-foot building.

The second is 1737 E. Evans, the former home of the Mediterranean buffet Sawa. It is the planned second location of Post Oak BBQ, whose first restaurant is at 4000 Tennyson St. in Berkeley. The Denver Post reported in May that the 3,000-square-foot space drew seven letters of intent within a couple of weeks of hitting the market, and that the existing kitchen was a big part of the appeal. Owner Nick Prince told the paper the build-out would cost about $750,000, all self-funded. He described the DU market as "so perfect for us," with students nearby and established neighborhoods around them. The menu is expected to be mostly the same as Tennyson's. The larger kitchen leaves room for additions such as brisket burgers and tomahawk steaks.

The city has said driveway and business access stays open throughout construction. Even so, both businesses are settling in next to an intersection on the rebuild list. The Evans and University reconstruction is scheduled to wrap up with the rest of the project in late 2027.

What the Finished Corner Adds

The completed corridor will have protected bike lanes and continuous sidewalks along Buchtel, new signals and lane alignments at all five intersections, and new crosswalks at Colorado Station. It continues the city's investment in walking routes on this side of the neighborhood, after the Harvard Gulch bridge replacement we covered in our look at how one bridge connects University's three pockets. Until then, the city's weekly updates on the project page show which side of University and Buchtel is open before each game night.

If you're curious how the Buchtel and Evans work might show up in your corner of University, from the commute you use today to what the finished streets will add, Molly Weiss follows these blocks closely and is happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.