This Winter, the Way to a DU Game Runs Down Evans Avenue

On a Friday night in November, the signs at University and Buchtel boulevards point drivers one way, and that is toward Evans Avenue. Through this phase of construction, the city's detour for a closed Buchtel Boulevard runs on Evans and nearby side streets. The light rail station at the foot of campus is also down to two rail lines while RTD rebuilds track downtown. Between now and the North Dakota series in early December, game nights at Magness Arena will lean on the stretch of Evans that University Park uses every day.

Why the detour signs point to Evans

The work is the city's Buchtel Boulevard & Evans Intersection Improvements project, part of Denver's University Safer Streets Program. It began in July 2026 and is expected to last about 18 months. It covers two miles of Buchtel, from west of University Boulevard to Colorado Center Drive at Birch Street east of Colorado Boulevard. Five intersections are being rebuilt. Three are on Buchtel, at University, St. Paul and Colorado, and two are on Evans, at University and Colorado.

The city's plan closes sections of Buchtel in full for the length of construction, beginning with University to St. Paul, and posts detours to Evans and nearby side streets. For the week of November 8 through 14, Buchtel was closed to through traffic between University and St. Paul around the clock. The left turn from southbound University onto eastbound Buchtel was also closed. Northbound University had lost its right lane from East Jewell Avenue to just south of the southbound I-25 on-ramp, which stayed open. Access to driveways and businesses inside the work zone stays open throughout.

The closure moves east in mid-November

The city scheduled the next phase for mid-November. Under that plan, Buchtel reopens from University to St. Paul and the next stretch east, from St. Paul to Monroe Street, closes. Work at University and Buchtel moves from the east side of the intersection to the west side, with right-lane closures southbound. The city says it will send a separate notice once dates are confirmed, and that all of its schedules depend on weather.

The city lists a few more details for the weeks ahead:

1. Short traffic holds at University and Buchtel and at Buchtel and St. Paul while crews set the poles for the new traffic signals, with uniformed traffic control on site.
2. Weekday lane closures with traffic shifts, generally 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
3. Working hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, with some overnight and weekend work.

The phase change helps the blocks closest to the arena, since the segment right beside campus reopens. Through traffic still has to find another route, though, because the closed section just moves farther east.

A busy home calendar on top of it

The city has tied the construction directly to DU athletics. Its project page notes that hockey nights bring more congestion on the detour routes and heavy foot traffic to and from Lot 108. Lot 108 stays open for events. Walkers use a designated ADA-compliant detour at the southeast corner of University and Buchtel, which crosses on the south crosswalk and adds an estimated one to two minutes. The city said that route would stay in place until the east side of the intersection reopened and work moved west. That is the same mid-November change, so walkers should check the project page before each event night.

Here is the home schedule from November 20 through the end of December, taken from the Pioneers' published schedules:

Hockey has two home weekends left before the holidays. The Pioneers play at St. Cloud State on December 11 and 12. That makes the North Dakota series on December 4 and 5 the last Friday and Saturday hockey crowd on Buchtel this calendar year.

Fewer trains at the foot of campus

Rail service has also changed. University of Denver Station, at 1901 E. Buchtel Blvd., is currently served by the E Line, the T Line and bus route 24. RTD's November 2026 events guide explains why. Because of the Downtown Rail Reconstruction Project, the D, H and L lines are suspended into the first quarter of 2027. The C Line is back temporarily between Littleton•Mineral and Union stations, and a new Temporary Line, the T, runs between Alameda and Lincoln stations. The same guide lists the E and T as the rail lines to Magness Arena, with route 24 as the bus connection.

Neighbors who used to ride the H Line to campus should plan around the E and T until RTD restores service. RTD itself asks riders to allow extra travel time. At the station, new crosswalks next to RTD's Colorado Station are part of the finished design.

Evans before the puck drops

With Buchtel torn up and the trains reduced, Evans is the street most people will use on the way to an event, and it has added places to stop in 2026.

The 1135 E. Evans Ave. address has two. Convict Coffee lists the location with posted hours and order-ahead service. Yemen Grill & Cafe, at the same address, appeared as temporarily closed in Westword's August roundup, and Westword's September roundup listed it as reopened. Farther east, the same August roundup listed Stoner's Pizza Joint at 1505 E. Evans Ave. among the month's openings. At 1700 E. Evans Ave., Holi Jelli Masala Cafe and Bar was reported by Westword in May to be open daily from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.

The next arrival is Post Oak Barbecue at 1737 E. Evans Ave., the restaurant's second Denver location after Tennyson Street. In May, The Denver Post reported a target of opening by October. The restaurant's Evans Avenue page now gives the grand opening as December 2026, which could fall during the last weeks of the home calendar.

One storefront on Evans has stayed in use under a new tenant. The building at 2345 E. Evans Ave., long home to Pete's University Park Cafe, was slated for Canvas Credit Union once the diner closed, as BusinessDen reported. It reopened on August 27 as the relocated University branch of Canvas Credit Union. Mile High CRE reported that the restoration kept the original exposed brick and a large structural steel beam inside the roughly 2,225-square-foot space. Rogue Architecture designed the project and Elder Construction built it.

What the finished Buchtel gives back

The city expects to finish in late 2027. The completed street will have protected bike lanes, sidewalks and pedestrian crossings along the full two miles. Its intersections will have realigned lanes and new signals designed to reduce turning conflicts, and the corridor will get new lighting and wayfinding signs. According to the city's program page, this project extends earlier University Safer Streets work. The program filled sidewalk gaps in University Park in 2021 and built a protected bike lane on Buchtel from Corona Street to University Boulevard in 2022. When the current phases are done, that protected route will continue past campus to Colorado Station, and the Evans detours will end.

The Wolfe Bouc Team keeps a close eye on corridor projects like Buchtel, because changes in how people get to a neighborhood also affect how homes near campus are shown and timed over the coming year. If you'd like to talk through what this construction schedule means for a property in University Park or Observatory Park, we welcome you to Request a Private Consultation.