View a slide show of the first girders placed for the light rail bridge over Wadsworth Boulevard in Lakewood.

Construction of the FasTracks West Corridor light rail project will reach a milestone next week with three overnight closures of Wadsworth Boulevard at 13th Avenue to set girders on what is planned to be Lakewood’s signature bridge. The Wadsworth Station on the West Corridor will be smack on top of the bridge.

This U.S. 85 bridge in Douglas County is one of the 124 poor-rated bridges on the list to be replaced with the controversial FASTER auto fee increases. Some opponents will try to repeal the new revenue in 2010.

Follow the money, and you’ll find most of the Top Ten Transportation Stories of 2009.

The transportation funding crisis and the difficult efforts to establish a sustainable annual program are at the foundation of many of the important transportation infrastructure stories.

From Washington to Colfax and Sherman, to your closest light rail station, the disruption to programs caused by the volatility of transportation funding dominated the stories of 2009 – one of the worst economic years in generations.

The entire staff at Inside Lane, together with his wife, Harriet, reviewed the major stories to come up with this list for your consideration.

Denver Transit Construction Group Press Release

All lanes of Colfax Avenue between Quaker Street and 6th Avenue will be closed overnight from 9 p.m. Sunday, December 6 to 5:30 a.m. Monday, December 7 to allow construction crews to place the girders on the bridge over Colfax.

The westbound 6th Avenue on-ramp at Indiana will be closed overnight from 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 9 to 5:30 a.m. Thursday, November 10 to allow crews to work on the bridge over Indiana and 6th Avenue.

Closure Event – Sunday, December 6, 2009:

All lanes of Colfax Avenue will be closed between Quaker Street and 6th Avenue from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. so crews can set girders on the Colfax Avenue Light Rail Bridge.

Closure Event – Wednesday, December 9, 2009:

The westbound 6th Avenue on-ramp at Indiana will be closed from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. so crews can work on the Indiana Light Rail Bridge.

Be advised that all construction activities are weather-dependent and subject to change. For complete up-to-date information on upcoming construction activities, access the Construction Information Page for the West Corridor on the Web at www.RTD-Fastracks.com. To speak to someone about construction activities, please call Kathy Berumen at 720-989-8099.

Two lanes, two years. Get ready, drivers, for what may be the West Corridor light rail project’s most inconvenient traffic impact.

Starting Monday night and lasting for about the next two years, four-lane Sheridan Boulevard between 10th and 14th avenues will be narrowed down to two lanes. If you can get through this, you can get through most anything FasTracks will throw at your drive over the next eight years.

Contractor crews led by Railroad Specialties of Littleton do track welding as part of the expansion of the Elati light rail maintenance facility and train yard, a part of FasTracks.

RTD has spent or committed $1.17 billion so far on FasTracks, one-sixth of the total estimated cost through 2017 of its rapid-transit expansion program.

The commitment level represents items already paid for plus current work now under contract – 17 percent of the total $6.9 billion projected cost.

Funds have been committed to all 10 rapid transit rail and bus corridors plus assorted common elements such as conversion of Denver Union Station into FasTracks’ main hub, expansion of the light rail maintenance facility in Englewood and planning for a new maintenance facility for heavy-rail commuter train cars.

A significant portion of the commitments have been made to corridors facing cutbacks if no new revenues are found to complete them.

This is what the message sign at I-70 westbound and Ward Road was reading before noon today. FasTracks tunnel construction wrapped up early and the highway reopened 18 hours ahead of schedule despite the snowstorm.

Denver Transit Construction Group finished placing girders for a FasTracks light rail tunnel and repaving westbound Interstate 70 at Sixth Avenue on Sunday morning, and reopened the highway to traffic almost a day ahead of schedule despite the weekend snowstorm.

DTCG spokeswoman Kathy Berumen said “all went well” and the closure that had been scheduled to last until 5:30 Monday morning was lifted on Sunday morning.

Click on the headline at top or on “Read more” below to go to the full story, or see the video in full screen mode by clicking on the box with the four outward pointing arrows at the lower right of the screen above.

Day 2!! Inside Lane’s exclusive video tour of construction progress along RTD FasTracks’ 12-mile West Corridor light rail project continues with the Lakewood segment called Area 2 by the contractor, Denver Transit Construction Group.

Watch the six-minute video and be guided by Area 2 Engineer Joe Van Aelstyn, who explains the drainage work getting underway and the multiple bridge constructions at Wadsworth, Kipling and Sixth Avenue Freeway.

Area 2 goes from Sheridan Boulevard on the east to the Denver Federal Center on the west. See our earlier report from yesterday on Area 3, below, in Denver, and watch Inside Lane for the next installment, the tour of Area 1, the western segment out to Golden.

Click on the headline at top or on “Read more” below to go to the full story, or see the video in full screen mode by clicking on the box with the four outward pointing arrows at the lower right of the screen above.

While the planners and politicians debate how to proceed with the RTD FasTracks program’s many projects, heavy construction is well underway on the West Corridor light rail, the first FasTracks rail line to reach construction. Inside Lane went out on the 12-mile construction zone with the engineers in charge and is producing three video updates, one on each of the three construction areas laid out by the contractor.

Going from east to west, the first update presented here starts at the Auraria campus in downtown Denver, goes through the industrial area along Colfax Avenue, crosses the South Platte River and then goes up Lakewood Gulch and Dry Gulch to Sheridan Boulevard. Your guide for this segment is Ryan Espoy, Denver Transit Construction Group’s engineer for Area 3. He outlines some of the progress made to date, plans for construction in the upcoming fourth quarter, and some of the innovations and value-engineering choices that have led to some savings on the project. We’ll get a look at some of the major structures underway and the schedule for the immediate future.

FasTracks Denver Transit Construction Group Press Release

Denver Transit Construction Group, RTD’s contractor for the FasTracks West Corridor construction project, will close various lanes of Interstate 70 overnight and on weekends.

Friday, October 9 – Monday, October 19, 2009

• One eastbound lane of I-70 between the Colfax and C-470 exits will close at nightly at 6:00 pm and a second lane will close nightly at 8:00 pm with both lane closures in effect until 5:30 a.m. the following morning.

• The C-470 ramp to eastbound I-70 will be closed from 8:00 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Traffic will be rerouted to 6th Avenue.

• One eastbound lane of I-70 between the Colfax and C-470 exits will close from 5:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 10th and Sunday, October 11th

• Trucks over 30,000 pounds will be rerouted off of I-70 at Exit 254 (Genesee) then to U.S. 40 east.

Tuesday, October 13 – Wednesday, October 14, 2009

• One westbound lane of I-70 between the Colfax and 6th Avenue exits will close nightly at 6:00 pm and a second lane will close nightly at 8:00 pm with both lane closures in effect until 5:30 a.m. the following morning.

Friday, October 16 – Monday, October 19, 2009

• All eastbound lanes of traffic on I-70 between the C-470 and Colfax Avenue exits will be closed the weekend of Friday October 16th through Monday, October 19th. The EB I-70 full closure will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 16th with all eastbound lanes of traffic reopening at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, October 19th.

• The C-470 ramp to eastbound I-70 will be closed the weekend of Friday October 16th through Monday, October 19th. The full closure will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 16th with all lanes reopening at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, October 19th.

• Truckers over 30,000 pounds will be rerouted off of I-70 at Exit 254 (Genesee) then to U.S. 40 east. Traveling motorists will be rerouted off of I-70 at Exit 261 (6th Avenue) then to I-25 north back to I-70.

• Be advised that all construction activities are weather-dependent and subject to change. For complete up-to-date information on upcoming construction activities, access the Construction Information Page for the West Corridor on the Web at www.RTD-Fastracks.com, or call 299-2000 for pre-recorded information 24 hours a day. To speak to someone about construction activities, please call 720-989-8099.