The preferred alternative Gold Line alignment is pictured in the Final Environmental Impact Statement.

RTD is holding two public hearings in the coming weeks on the FasTracks Gold Line Final Environmental Impact Statement, and anticipates getting federal approval for the project in the fall.

The Gold Line is an 11.2-mile heavy-rail commuter corridor that connect Denver Union Station with Wheat Ridge at Ward Road, while preserving a future extension corridor from there into Golden.

Public hearings are set for Wednesday, Sept. 9, in the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., and on Thursday, Sept. 17, in the Highlands Masonic Center, 3550 Federal Blvd. Both hearings start at 6 p.m.

Under the EIS findings, it would run north along the east side of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railways/Union Pacific Railroad tracks that parallel Inca Street, then curve west at Utah Junction near 56th Avenue and Pecos Street along the BNSF “Beer Line” track that serves the Coors Brewery and facilities in Golden.

It would have seven stations along the way in addition to Union Station: 41st Avenue and Fox Street in north Denver; Pecos Street near 62nd Avenue; Federal Boulevard at 61st Avenue; Sheridan Boulevard at 60th Avenue; Olde Town Arvada at Wadsworth Boulevard and 56th Avenue; Arvada Ridge at Ridge Road and Miller Street; and the end-of-line Ward Road station, east of Ward at 50th Place near Van Gordon Street.

Conceptual design of the Olde Town Arvada station platform structures uses Craftsman style, one of four styles proposed for the seven stations.

The EIS is available for viewing online at the FasTracks Gold Line web page, and at Arvada Library, 7525 W. 57th Ave.; Perl Mack Library, 7611 Hilltop Circle; Red Rocks Community College, Arvada Campus, 5420 Miller St.; Regis University Library, 3333 Regis Blvd.; Smiley Library, 4501 W. 46th Ave.; Standley Lake Library, Kipling Street; Westminster Public Library, 7392 Irving St., and the Wheat Ridge Library on , West 32nd Avenue.

The public can also submit comments regarding the EIS online at the project web site, or by direct email to the EIS staff at comments@rtdgoldline.com.

The deadline for public comments is Monday, Sept. 21. A newsletter about the process can be viewed here.

The Gold Line has been packaged into a single initiative called Eagle P3, a planned Public-Private Partnership, with the East Corridor commuter rail project to Denver International Airport and construction of a rail yard and maintenance facility for all four FasTracks commuter rail corridors.

RTD had difficulty siting the maintenance facility, which has undergone at least four revisions at three selected sites. It ended up north of 48th Avenue and Fox Street, but was scaled back from the original size to avoid forcing relocation of the Owens Corning Fiberglass roofing shingle plant at the north end. Workers were concerned that the company would close the plant and lose its 100 jobs if it were forced to move.

One company impacted by the site is Rocla Concrete Tie Inc., which has sold RTD the railroad ties used in three out of four of its previous light rail corridors.

If successful, a consortium of designers, contractors, transit operators and financiers will take over the two corridors and other associated work, finance it privately, design it and build it, and then operate it for at least 40 years, under a contract with RTD.

The upside for RTD is that, by converting projects it would have to pay entirely upfront through borrowing and grants into a long-term concession contract for which it would make annual payments to the operators, it could build some financial breathing room into the beleaguered FasTracks plan of finance.

Currently, there is a $2.2 billion gap between what RTD now believes FasTracks will cost to build – $6.9 billion – and the amount of money it projects the current economy will allow it to leverage through the 2017 target completion date – $4.7 billion.

The Eagle P3 project financing also figures on receiving two Federal Transit Administration New Starts grants totaling $1 billion. While that seems like a reasonable figure based on RTD’s experience of receiving three previous New Starts grants for the light rail lines to Littleton, T-REX and the under-construction FasTracks West Corridor, the New Starts program itself is expiring at the end of this month with the six-year federal transportation funding authorization bill. Every indication is that Congress will keep the program in some form but there is no guarantee that the rules and regulations will be the same.

RTD is preparing for flexibility with the Eagle P3 package by telling the three consortiums interested in bidding on it that it may break it into phases. In that case, the airport line would begin first, and RTD would reserve the start of the Gold Line until as late as the end of 2011, when the financial situation should be much clearer.

The corridor is scheduled for completion in 2015 or 2016.

The make-up of the three consortiums interested in the Eagle P3 project.