CREJ - Land and Development - July 2016
The more than $200 million environmental remediation project as part of the Stapleton redevelopment is nearly complete. It is a transformation from an international airport to a thriving residential and mixed-use community. Many local organizations and businesses have come together over the ongoing 18-year project, including Earth Services & Abatement, which has maintained a working presence in Stapleton, completing multiple phases since the project’s early years. Final phases of asbestos abatement, demolition and soil remediation are in progress, with a finish date slated for August. The 4,700-acre site was home to Stapleton International Airport, which first opened in 1929 as the Denver Municipal Airport. However, as the city began to grow, Denver officials decided to close down the airport in Stapleton and move it to its present-day location, about 15 miles east of the former site. In 1990, the Stapleton Foundation was created and then in 1995 after the Stapleton airport officially closed, the foundation published the Stapleton Redevelopment Plan, commonly referred to as the “Green Book.” The plan called for the establishment of jobs and open recreational spaces in a new mixed-use neighborhood. Approved by Denver City Council in 1995, the Green Book was the foundation for the work that is still taking place in the Stapleton community. Greg Holt, who serves as the director of transportation systems at Denver International Airport and the program manager for Stapleton Redevelopment, has worked on the project since its inception. Holt has worked with the city and county of Denver for over 35 years and was the chief airport operations manager at the Stapleton Airport before its closure in 1995. Having been involved with multiple stakeholders and agencies to make sure the redevelopment meets all of the goals and regulations set in place, Holt also worked closely with ESA to see that all the demolition, remediation and asbestos abatement work was on schedule. Airport cleanup presents its challenges. The remediation program was unique in that with so much acreage, so many buildings and so many types of contamination, we had to undertake an interdisciplinary approach to remediation. Contamination ranged from asbestos-filled buildings, hangars and bridges, to long-forgotten landfills that were scattered throughout the former Stapleton property. The landfills in particular became a major focus of the cleanup efforts. What many people do not realize about old landfills is that they are full of various types of contamination that must be cleaned up in order to redevelop the sites. You cannot simply put homes and infrastructure on top of these abandoned sites. For one, you end up with bad compaction and settling occurs due to unstable soils and void spaces. More importantly, in the 1950s and ‘60s when these landfills were created, old buildings may have been demolished without any asbestos abatement or hazardous materials remediation prior to demolition. Asbestos, lead and other hazardous materials often are scattered throughout the buried debris. Holt explained that, as part of its sale agreement, the city and county of Denver had to clean these properties up before transferring them to the developer. We performed environmental remediation on over 1 million yards of landfill materials contaminated with asbestos, lead, PCBs, biohazards and jet fuel, among other hazards. In addition, our firm abated and demolished multiple bridges, hangars and buildings. The project is still ongoing, requiring two to three years before all of the land is transferred and six to 10 years before the site is fully developed. We are completing the last major landfill remediation on the Highline Canal, Phase II portion of the project. This area is approximately 45,000 cubic yards of landfill material from a 1960s-era landfill site. ESA is working concurrently on the former control tower abatement to make way for one of the new highlights of the redevelopment project, Punch Bowl Social – a popular bar, restaurant and bowling alley.