Simulation shows the FasTracks East Corridor commuter rail station planned to adjoin the DIA terminal’s south side.

Officials from Denver International Airport and RTD gathered Friday to mark the federal government’s approval this month of two environmental studies that keep crucial FasTracks corridors on the path toward $1 billion in grants.

Environmental Impact Statements for the East Corridor heavy-rail line to DIA from downtown and the companion Gold Line heavy-rail to Arvada and Wheat Ridge both were approved by the Federal Transit Administration.

This allows RTD to proceed with final design, financing and construction. The transit agency in September formally began a procurement process to select a private sector team that would do the work, with selection expected by June.

DIA Press Release

To celebrate America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, Denver International Airport and 16 of its shops and restaurants will be rewarding passengers who recycle with gift certificates for an entire week starting on Monday, Nov. 16, and running through to Nov. 20. The way to win? Get caught “green handed” in the act of recycling something at one of Denver International Airport’s 520 special recycling bins.

Members of DIA’s Environmental Services team will be combing the main Jeppesen Terminal and the three concourses looking for passengers who are recycling. Participating restaurants have provided gift certificates for discounts on meals and beverages at the airport and include Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream; Boulder Beer Tap House; Burger King; Caribou Coffee; Chef Jimmy’s; The CofTea Shop; Dazbog Coffee; Einstein Bros. Bagels; Jamba Juice; Lefty’s Mile High Grille, Colorado Trails Grille and Front Range Grille; Mesa Verde Lounge; Red Rocks Bar & Grill; Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory; Schlotzsky’s Deli; TCBY and Coffee Beanery / UNO Pizza.

Denver International Airport is world-renowned for its environmental achievements, including being the first international airport in the United States to develop and implement a facility-wide, ISO-14001 certified Environmental Management System (EMS). The EMS is the tool that DIA uses to systematically and proactively manage the airport’s environmental programs. Denver International Airport’s environmental management has established many firsts in the United States and internationally:

• Received the FAA Environmental Stewardship Award (2007)
• Accepted into Colorado’s environmental leadership program as a Gold Level member (2004)
• Active participant in local and state sustainability initiatives, including Greenprint Denver and Colorado Climate Action Plan
• In 2008, DIA diverted over 1400 tons of municipal solid wastes from the landfill for recycling
• DIA is one of 10 international airports that are working together with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to establish sustainability guidelines for the world’s airports

According to Janell Barrilleaux, Director of Environmental Programs at DIA, “America Recycles Day provides DIA with the opportunity to educate our travelling public, business partners and employees about the importance of recycling. Recycling conserves resources, reduces waste and in many cases, reduces costs. With the generous participation by our restaurants and shops, we’re hoping to raise the level of awareness about DIA’s environmental programs—and make it fun at the same time.”

For additional information about DIA’s Environmental Management System, visit http://www.flydenver.com/diaBiz/community/enviro/index.asp . For more information about America Recycles Day 2009, visit http://www.americarecyclesday.org/americarecycles.aspx .

DIA Press Release

Passenger traffic at Denver International Airport totaled 4,011,123 in September, a decline of 0.2 percent over the 4,017,761 travelers recorded at the airport in the same month last year. Despite the nearly flat monthly total, it was the second-busiest September ever at the Denver airport.

Traffic records had been set at DIA the two previous months, when the airport had its busiest month ever in July and its busiest August in history. Traffic growth in those months ended a downward trend that began in December 2008.

“To be down only a fraction of one percent from the same month in 2008, when DIA set its all-time traffic record, is encouraging for us,” Aviation Manager Kim Day said Wednesday. “We still believe that traffic is starting to rebound as the economy improves, and that we will finish 2009 only slightly below last year’s record number.”

For the year, passenger traffic at DIA totaled 38,335,231 through September. That was down 2.5 percent from the 39,338,285 travelers recorded during the first nine months of 2008.

DIA handled 49,287 flight operations in September, also a decline of 0.2 percent from the same month of 2008. For the first nine months of 2009, DIA’s operations totaled 462,593, 3.0 percent below the same period of last year.

The complete traffic report will be available on DIA’s Web site by following this link:
http://www.flydenver.com/diabiz/stats/traffic/index.asp

The average air fare out of Denver International Airport was lower in the first quarter this year than when DIA opened in 1995 – testimony to airline competition, cost containment by the city and what some call the “Southwest Effect.”

In fact, Denver is one of only four air travel markets among the top 85 on the country that had lower air fares than 14 years ago, according to figures compiled by the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Only Richmond, Va., declined more in average plane ticket price than Denver over the same period.

The figures show that the average air fare in Denver in the first quarter this year, the latest period available, was 3.7 percent lower than in the first quarter of 1995. That was when Denver was preparing to transition to the new airport from Stapleton International Airport. DIA opened Feb. 28, 1995.

The national average air fare, by contrast, was 16 percent higher in the first quarter this year than in 1995.

Genetec Press Release

Genetec announced recently that Denver International Airport has selected Omnicast, Genetec’s advanced IP video surveillance solution, to secure its 53 square-mile facility.

Ranked the 10th busiest airport in the world in 2008 for passenger traffic by Airports Council International, DIA was looking to upgrade its outdated analog system to a newer and more advanced network-based solution that could evolve as newer technology emerged.

The entire system to date consists of 1,200 cameras and 12 archive servers that are expected to double in the next 18 months. Besides the airport protection and surveillance applications such as monitoring the facility, security checkpoints and passenger congestion throughout, they also intend to service external clients with the use of Omnicast. Currently, the Transportation Security Administration, airlines, airport operations, airport parking, Denver police department and Denver airport security, among others, all use video surveillance for a range of purposes.

To date, all our clients have been using their own systems from different organizations,” said Phil Medina, senior IT administrator for airport security at DIA. “Eventually, we will connect all cameras to the Omnicast system and offer it as a service to everyone.”

Some other features include the user-friendly interface, which would allow DIA to save time in training customers with all levels of experience, the multiple options to manage and store the video, as well as the watermarking options, which further protect the data.

Since DIA is also storing a lot of video recordings, it are able to reduce the amount of required storage using tools in Omnicast that efficiently optimize its bandwidth, such as multicasting and multi-streaming. The system’s open architecture contributed to additional flexibility, allowing DIA to preserve some initial investments including a storage area network, existing cameras and an access control system that will soon be fully integrated with Omnicast.

Apart from continually growing the system, there are still larger plans ahead for DIA and their new Omnicast solution, including integrations with video analytics and situational management software, as well as the introduction of a strengthened perimeter security program.

“DIA has really taken advantage of Omnicast’s unique capabilities by turning a typical large-scale airport application into one of the most cutting-edge deployments in the transportation industry,” says Danny Peleg, director of transportation market for Genetec. “We are glad to have been able to contribute to their pro-active security enhancements, as their efforts will certainly not go unnoticed.”

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UPDATE: The RTD board Tuesday night approved the issuance of the Eagle P3 request for public-private partnership proposals, along with the increased stipends to the unsuccessful bidders and the $20 million payment to the winning bidder in the event RTD later cancels the project.

The vote was 14-0, with Director Bill James absent but sending a statement of support.

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RTD board members tonight will consider increasing the $1.75 million stipends it is offering to each of the three teams of bidders on the FasTracks lines to the airport and Arvada-Wheat Ridge, to $2.5 million each, to encourage them to stay in the chase for the innovative and risky public-private partnership.

That’s in addition to a new $20 million fee RTD will take up tonight to be paid to the winning team in the event it signs a deal with RTD and the transit district later backs out.

It is all part of a vote to release a request for proposals by the end of the month to the three teams.

The public-private partnership idea is part of RTD’s strategy for bringing down the upfront costs of FasTracks, now $2.2 billion underwater with expenses over finances if it wants to finish on the original schedule of 2017.

The winning private team would enter into a concession contract with RTD to provide significant private financing – up to $1 billion – plus a design-build project delivery approach similar to that used by RTD and CDOT on the successful T-REX highway-transit project, and then capped off with a 40-year operating and maintenance agreement with the private partner. Under the concession, the private team would receive annual payments from RTD in exchange for providing the system and operating it to RTD schedules and standards.

A total of 5,109,342 passengers were recorded at Denver International Airport in July, a 2.2 percent increase from the 5,000,505 travelers who used the airport during the same month last year. This marks DIA’s busiest month in history and bucks the trend of declining passenger numbers that started last fall. This is only the second time in history that monthly traffic at DIA has topped the 5 million mark.

“This is certainly good news for Denver International Airport,” Aviation Manager Kim Day said Tuesday. “We’ve been seeing our numbers drop since last October and it is refreshing to see them headed in a different direction. Although we still anticipate finishing 2009 down overall, I think that this is an encouraging sign and certainly a reflection on how strong the Denver air travel market really is.”

July 2008 was previously the busiest month on record at DIA.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement for RTD’s FasTracks East Corridor commuter train to Denver International Airport is available for public viewing and comment prior to public hearings scheduled for later this month.

If the Federal Transit Administration approves the findings afterward, RTD would be able to move the 22.8-mile heavy-rail electrified train corridor into final design and toward construction. But don’t expect it to happen right away, because the East Corridor is one of the two FasTracks train commuter train projects that RTD is packaging into one in an attempt to solicit private investors and save money. That process is underway, and the request for proposals is expected to go out at the end of September.

The East Corridor isn’t the longest in FasTracks – that distinction belongs to the Northwest Rail Corridor to Westminster, Broomfield, Boulder and Longmont at 41 miles. But the East Corridor is the most expensive of the 10 FasTracks rapid transit corridors, at more than $1.64 billion.

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.

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.

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.

Denver International Airport will host a seminar next week to share information regarding potential airport business opportunities with minority, women and small-business entrepreneurs.

The DIA Way Joint Forum will include industry-specific sessions devoted to updating businesses about new business developments at the airport. It also will explain contracting opportunities at DIA and help to facilitate relationships between business owners and prime contractors at the airport.

The forum will be held from 7:30 a.m. to noon on Monday at the Renaissance Hotel, 3801 Quebec St. Business owners interested in attending are urged to pre-register at www.flydenver.com/contracts. Online registration will close at 5 p.m. Thursday but on-site registration will be available at the forum.