DENVER, COLO. ?EUR??,,????'??? Giving pedestrians and train riders some shelter from the cold has been a goal of Denver?EUR??,,????'???s Transport Expansion Project (nicknamed T-REX) for some time. Known as the Louisiana Lid, the elevated plaza will span the light rail tracks and station on Interstate 25 at Louisiana Avenue. ?EUR??,,????'??At one point, we weren?EUR??,,????'???t really sure there was going to be funding for the lid,?EUR??,,????'?? said Tom Jump of Jump Design, a landscape architect who helped design the plaza. ?EUR??,,????'??Voters approved reconstruction of the south corridor which will make more lanes with a light rail system.?EUR??,,????'?? Over time $2.8 million will be collected from T-REX and city fees to pay for the project. Some of the payments will be deferred later. Jump said this was a pretty complicated project. The neighborhood transit station has a city street grid above and the highway dips down below. Pedestrians enter at the higher level and can walk down to the platform. ?EUR??,,????'??Our main objective is to make this more hospitable and safer for pedestrians, like an oasis,?EUR??,,????'?? said Jump. ?EUR??,,????'??At one point this was a maze of streets. We wanted to create a nicer atmosphere above.?EUR??,,????'?? The plant palette is still being finalized, as Denver has recently gone through a drought. No turf will be used as flowering trees will likely be planted along the edge. The protective covering spans 20 miles from south central Denver to the suburbs in Douglass County, said Jump. ?EUR??,,????'??This is a unique project because it came from a grassroots effort with a couple of landscape architects,?EUR??,,????'?? said Jump. ?EUR??,,????'??We had some grander aspirations like creating something along the lines of a Seattle Freeway Park.?EUR??,,????'?? The design calls for South Buchtel Boulevard to swing around the Washington-Louisiana in a curving bulge, which could also help slow down traffic. Buchtel is a one-way frontage road on the south side of Interstate 25. Jump said the plan was to make room for the change of the plaza alignment as Buchtel curved and bowed out. This would allow for more room for pedestrians to get to the plaza. ?EUR??,,????'??This is a pretty unique project,?EUR??,,????'?? said Jump. ?EUR??,,????'??If it?EUR??,,????'???s successful, it could serve as the prototype for future light rail projects.?EUR??,,????'?? Because the interstate was built in the 1950s, it interrupted the traditional street grid, said Jump. Urbanization of the area has been unusual as Denver?EUR??,,????'???s downtown corridor is fairly new.