(PUEBLO, Colo.) — The Pueblo Amtrak Station is making headway in its development process. The latest designs and concept plans were presented at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
The rail station’s project manager presented a timeline to describe where in the process this design is and he said they are still in the early phases. The design that was presented is at 10% out of 100%, where they would be ready to build.
The focus of the 10% design concept was how they would incorporate the culture and history of Pueblo into this rail station.
“Where the river meets the rails,” has been the headline for the designers of the Pueblo Amtrak Station.
“There’s this really amazing history, not only of the site and of the building, but of the river and the flood and sort of the relationships there and that’s been really what we’ve been telling ourselves as a design team,” said project manager, Bryan Robinson.
The station is slated to be built between the historic B street, and the Arkansas River.
“The idea is to link b-street across the rails to the river… So when you are on top level…not only do you absorb the historic district, but you’re really able to see 360 views to the extent of the front range,” said Robinson.
Aside from the basic function of the rail station, the designers have added community facilities to the layout, like restaurants, bar spaces, and a mid-level gallery area.
“We’ve been asking ourselves how do we make a station that’s more than a station,” said Robinson.
In-part due to the design of this new station, Pueblo has been able to get ahead of the curve in incorporating the proposed inter-city passenger train service, Front Range Passenger Rail.
“With this, we’re far ahead of all the other cities along the front range… They’re still trying to figure out even where these places would be,” said Dennis Flores, Pueblo City Councilmember.
The next design phase is 30%, and will incorporate more of the engineering, more detail to the design, as well as the monetary aspects of how much this project will cost.
