The RTD FasTracks West Corridor team will roll out the main span of a double-track light rail bridge across 6th Avenue just east of Simms/Union the weekend of April 23rd through April 25th. All lanes of 6th Avenue between Simms/Union and Kipling Street will close at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, April 23rd to prepare the area for the roll-out, scheduled to begin early Saturday morning. 6th Avenue and the frontage road will re-open by 5:30 a.m. Monday, April 26th.

With warmer weather to help it along, construction progress on the West Corridor light rail project is ramping up.
The work may be most visible along the Sixth Avenue Freeway, where a dramatic steel arch bridge will be rolled out over the roadway during a full weekend closure in two weeks and a long curving bridge is winding its way over the Indiana Street interchange. Denver Transit Construction Group and its major subcontractors have almost all of the bridge structures underway. Click here to see a slide show and read an RTD report on construction progress.

Lakewood Edge reports that FasTracks construction will limit the use of the center lanes along a stretch of West 6th Avenue for about 10 days next month while crews relocate a signboard, the Denver Transit Construction Group announced Thursday.

Work crews will close the east- and west-bound center lanes of the heavily traveled highway between the Simms/Union exit Indiana Street beginning April 11 to move the Colorado Department of Transportation sign. The sign is in the middle of the highway near the area of the entrance road to Red Rocks College.

It’s a first in the United States for bridge construction – the FasTracks bridge over Sixth Avenue Freeway in Lakewood will be rolled into place intact during a weekend highway closure in April.

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.