Hamon Contractors is building the middle segment of the new 104th Avenue bridge in Northglenn, replacing an original I-25 bridge from 1962. CDOT photo.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

More than $390 million in road construction projects on state highways will be underway this year in the metro Denver area, with more than a third of the total funded by the federal stimulus program.

The activity is spread across 32 projects in the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Region 6, which covers much of the Denver area with the exception of Boulder and Douglas County south of Highlands Ranch. It includes projects CDOT is doing plus several city projects in Denver and Aurora on state highways that CDOT is overseeing.

CDOT’s Region 6 staff led by Region Director Reza Akhavan outlined the projects in a briefing that brought to light some of the savings achieved recently in bidding results that allowed budgeted funds to be plowed back into additional work.

“This will be keeping us very busy this year,” Akhavan said.

CDOT aerial photo shows grading work at the 120th Avenue Connection project over US 36, looking southwest.

Foremost was savings in the $23.3 million 120th Avenue Connection project in Broomfield, which is providing a straight-across link west-to-east from CO 128 to 120th Avenue to allow traffic to bypass the busy Wadsworth/Midway Boulevard interchange with U.S. 36. Inside Lane wrote about this project when ground was broken, and at the time, CDOT didn’t have funding to start the second phase that would include the tie-ins on the east side with 120th.

Now, says CDOT Region 6 North Program Engineer John Schwab, savings achieved through the design-build contracting process used by CDOT and the contractor partnership of Edward Kraemer & Sons and HNTB will allow CDOT to begin design work on that second phase, as well as right-of-way acquisition. The hefty construction costs for that phase, estimated up to $40 million, means the rest will have to wait for more funding.

They projects range from the inexpensive– such as a $180,000 paint restriping of Parker Road between Hampden and Belleview Avenues to fit in third lanes in each direction, a small price to squeeze out extra traffic capacity on the busy corridor, and $500,000 for a wildlife fence along U.S. 6 between Heritage Road and 19th Street in Golden – to several in the $30 million and $40 million class.

Because of the lead time to get stimulus-funded projects underway, there are many projects this construction season that are being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. They include the $47.2 construction of a new Central Park Boulevard interchange on Interstate 70 by SEMA Construction to provide better access to Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood and commercial area, the $17.9 million addition of a 17th Avenue interchange on Interstate 225 by Hamon Contractors to ease traffic flows into the Fitzsimons medical campus in Aurora, the $36.9 million replacement of the Alameda bridge over I-25 in Denver by Jalisco International and a new $32 million flyover ramp for southbound Santa Fe Drive to eastbound C-470 by Edward Kraemer and Sons in Littleton.

CDOT also will be starting up projects funded by the new revenue from the FASTER program’s vehicle registration fee hikes. They include new signals, auxiliary lane and realignment of the roadway geometry at the hazardous intersection of CO 7 and York Street in Adams County, more median cable guards on C-470 to prevent crossover head-on crashes and concrete median barrier on South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton.

“While a few large Recovery Act projects are still underway, there are many projects that are just starting that will greatly improve safety and mobility on our highway system,” said CDOT Executive Director Russell George. “Specifically, there will be several critical bridge and safety projects as a result of FASTER.”

Use this map of CDOT’s Region 6 — most of the Denver Metro area — along with the project descriptions below to see where these projects are located. I have put all 32 projects below with details on cost, schedule, work hours and project scope, along with pictures from many of them:

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Metro Denver CDOT Projects Spring-Summer 2010
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North Area (North Program Engineer John Schwab)
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Edward Kraemer and Sons has placed girders at the new 120th Avenue bridge over US 36 has girders and will soon install bridge decking. CDOT photo.

Cost: $23.3 million

Contractor: Edward Kraemer and Sons, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Yet to be determined

Work: Constructs a new six-lane road across US 36 to connect 120th Avenue and State Highway 128 in Broomfield in order to provide greater connectivity to US 36 and local roadways. This project will construct two of the three phases needed to complete the entire project. As part of this project, a new bridge over US 36 will be constructed as well as a new bridge over Commerce Street. Several local roads such as Commerce Street, Old Wadsworth Boulevard and 118th Avenue will be realigned to correspond with the new roadway. The RTD park-n-Ride facility at Wadsworth Parkway will be relocated near the Broomfield Event Center. Currently, motorists in the Broomfield area can only cross US 36 at Wadsworth Parkway. Due to the lack of continuity with State Highway 128 and 120th Avenue, the US 36/Wadsworth Parkway interchange is heavily congested and State Highway 128 and 120th Avenue are operating at capacity during peak hours. Traffic forecasts indicate at least a doubling in traffic over the next 20 years. The new 120th Avenue Connection will provide relief on these major corridors by improving connectivity, safety and mobility.

Update: To date, crews have conducted embankment work on 120th Avenue and have begun bridge construction over US 36. Girders and bridge deck panels have been installed for the new bridge over US 36.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. with double lane closures from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Duration: September 2009 through October 2010
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Hamon Contractors is working on the middle segment of the new 104th Avenue bridge over I-25 in Northglenn. CDOT photo.

2. 104th Avenue over I-25

Cost: $6.5 million

Contractor: Hamon Contractors, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Yet to be determined

Work: Replaces the 104th Avenue bridge over I-25, which was originally constructed in 1962 and is one of Colorado’s structurally deficient bridges. The new bridge will be wider to accommodate an additional left turn lane from eastbound 104th Avenue to northbound I-25.

Update: The new bridge is being constructed in three phases with work beginning on the northern portion. Currently, crews have completed the northern and middle portions of the new bridge and work will begin on the southern portion towards the end of April.

Work Hours:
I-25: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. with double lane closures from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. There will be occasional full closures of I-25 for girder installation, deck panel installation and bridge deck concrete pours.
104th Avenue: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with double lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. There will always one lane open in each direction.

Duration: May 2009 through January 2011
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The original 80th Avenue bridge over U.S. 36 was built in 1951 as part of the Denver-Boulder Turnpike. Structures Inc. will build the replacement. CDOT photo.

Cost: $7 million

Contractor: Structures, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Yet to be determined

Work: Replaces the 80th Avenue bridge over US 36, which was originally constructed in 1951 and is one of Colorado’s structurally deficient bridges. When complete, the bridge will be wider to accommodate an additional left turn lane from 80th Avenue to Oakwood Drive and a wider sidewalk. The project also realigns 80th Avenue to the east to improve sight distance, access and traffic flow. The improvements will accommodate the future widening of US 36 as determined through the US 36 Environmental Impact Statement.

Work Hours:
US 36: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. There will be occasional full closures of US 36 for girder installation, bridge deck panel installation and bridge deck concrete pours.
80th Avenue: 80th Avenue will be closed for the duration of the project and a detour route will be in place which takes motorists to either 92nd Avenue on the north or 72nd Avenue on the south.

Duration: May 2010 through May 2011
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SEMA Construction crews are nearing completion on new I-76 bridges over the South Platte River and CO 224 in Adams County. CDOT photo.

4. I-76 over State Highway 224 and I-76 over the Union Pacific Railroad

Cost: $11 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: SEMA Construction, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Jake Koenig

Work: Replaces the existing I-76 structures over State Highway 224 and the Union Pacific Railroad, which were both originally built in 1967 and are two of Colorado’s structurally deficient bridges. In addition, the project will construct a crash wall for the I-76 structure over the Union Pacific Railroad as well for the State Highway 224 structure over the Union Pacific Railroad. The crash walls protect the bridge supports in case of a train derailment and are needed for the future North Metro FasTracks line. RTD is funding the design and construction of both walls.

Update: The bridges are being constructed in three phases as to not disrupt traffic. Currently, crews have completed the westbound and middle portions of the new bridges and are working on the eastbound portion. Girders have been installed for the final portion and crews will pour the bridge deck in late April.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with occasional night work.

Duration: June 2009 through July 2010
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The new CO 7 bridge being built by Zak Dirt Inc. over the South Platte River in Brighton is nearly complete. CDOT photo.

5. State Highway 7 over the Platte River

Cost: $3.6 million

Contractor: Zak Dirt, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Jake Koenig

Work: Replaces the existing State Highway 7 structure over the Platte River with a new structure and replaces the existing bridge over the McCann Ditch with a new concrete box culvert. The State Highway 7 bridge over Platte River was originally constructed in 1967 and is one of Colorado’s structurally deficient bridges.

Update: To date, crews have completed two thirds of the new bridge and will have the final one third complete by the end of April. In May, crews will pave State Highway 7 in asphalt through the construction zone.

Work Hours: State Highway 7 is in a temporary alignment with traffic shifted to the south, but all lanes are open in each direction. Occasional night work will take place Sunday through Thursday from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Duration: June 2009 through June 2010
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6. 96th Avenue at I-76

Cost: $4.1 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: Castle Rock Construction Co.

Resident Engineer: Jake Koenig

Work: Constructs roundabouts at the on and off-ramps at the interchange of 96th Avenue and I-76 to improve safety and mobility.

Update: The majority of the work is now complete, but crews are finishing work in the southeast quadrant of the roundabouts.

Work Hours: Single-lane alternating traffic on 96th Avenue Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The ramp from eastbound I-76 to 96th Avenue is closed as well as the southeast service road.

Duration: May 2009 through April 2010
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7. US 6 over Lakewood Gulch

Cost: $1.1 million

Contractor: Hamon Contractors, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Yet to be determined

Work: Repairs bridges at three locations in the Denver metro area. The work includes cleaning and repairing the culvert at US 6 over Lakewood Gulch; removing deteriorating concrete and patching at Quebec Street over Sand Creek; and replacing expansion joints on I-70 over I-25.

Update: The work on US 6 over Lakewood Gulch and Quebec Street over Sand Creek is complete. Crews will begin repairs at I-70 over I-25 in May once the expansion joints have been fabricated.

Work Hours: Single lane closures from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., Sunday through Thursday.

Duration: February 2010 through June 2010
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8. Colorado Boulevard (State Highway 2) – 62nd Avenue to Quebec Street

Cost: $3.2 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: LaFarge North America, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Bill McDonnell

Work: Resurfaces 2.4 miles of Colorado Boulevard in asphalt and upgrades traffic signals.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Duration: May 2010 through September 2010
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9. US 85 at 144th Avenue

Cost: $800,000 (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Bill McDonnell

Work: Constructs raised traffic islands on 144th Avenue to prohibit traffic in both directions of 144th Avenue from making left turns onto US 85 and also from crossing over US 85. Improvements will also be made to the left turn lanes on US 85.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with occasional night work.

Duration: May 2010 through June 2010
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10. State Highway 128 – McCaslin Boulevard to Eldorado Boulevard

Cost: $1.4 (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Bill McDonnell

Work: Rotomills and resurfaces approximately one mile of SH 128 in asphalt

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with occasional night work.

Duration: August 2010 through September 2010
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Central Area (Central Program Engineer Jim Bemelen)
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11. I-70 at Ward Road

Cost: $8.5 million

Contractor: Asphalt Paving, Co.

Resident Engineer: Ed Martinez

Work: Reconstructs the eastbound I-70 exit ramps at 44th Avenue/Ward Road by moving the ramps east a quarter of a mile from their current location in order to increase merge distance. The north side of 44th Avenue will also be widened to accommodate two left turn lanes from eastbound 44th Avenue to I-70 as well as one full continuous merge lane on 44th Avenue between the I-70 off-ramp and Ward Road. Following the completion of interchange work, I-70 between Colfax Avenue and Kipling Street will be rotomilled and paved in asphalt.

Work Hours:
I-70: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m with double lane closures from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
44th Avenue: Lane closures Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. At least two left turn lanes from 44th Avenue to eastbound I-70 must remain open at all times as well as at least one lane of eastbound and westbound 44th Avenue.

Duration: January 2010 through June 2011
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12. I-70 – Colorado Boulevard to Monaco Street

Cost: $5 million (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Ed Martinez

Work: Replaces concrete barrier along I-70, constructs a new crash wall on Colorado Boulevard under I-70 and installs several new permanent sign structures.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. with double lane closures from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Duration: June 2010 through October 2010
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13. I-70 – Brighton Boulevard (State Highway 265) to Colorado Boulevard (State Highway 2)

Cost: $21.7 million

Contractor: American Civil Constructors, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Tony Stewart

Work: Repairs or replaces 60 expansion joints on the I-70 viaduct, which is over 40 years old. The project also reconstructs the median to improve drainage and replaces the bridge rail. In all, 64 expansion joints will be repaired or replaced on the viaduct between two projects. The first project, which was completed in 2006, repaired or replaced four expansion joints. This work will help extend the life of this aging structure, which was originally constructed in 1964.

Update: To date, crews have completed the majority of the expansion joint work between Brighton Boulevard and Vasquez Boulevard and have just started work between Vasquez Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard.

Work hours:
I-70: Single lane closures Sunday through Saturday from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. with double lane closures from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
46th Avenue: Various segments of eastbound or westbound 46th Avenue will be closed based on the location of the work on I-70.

Duration: September 2008 through May 2011
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14. Colorado Boulevard (State Highway 2) – Alameda Avenue to Martin Luther King Boulevard

Cost: $3.8 million

Contractor: LaFarge West, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Tony Stewart

Work: Resurfaces approximately 3.5 miles of Colorado Boulevard in asphalt, reconstructs the median and curb ramps. The traffic signals will be upgraded and turn lanes will be improved at the Colorado Boulevard/Colfax Avenue; Colorado Boulevard/17th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard/Montview Boulevard intersections.

Work hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday through Thursday from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Duration: May 2010 through October 2010
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15. I-70 at Central Park Boulevard

Cost: $47.2 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: SEMA Construction, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Tony Stewart

Work: Constructs a full interchange at I-70 and Central Park Boulevard which is between Havana Street and Quebec Street. The project will construct all ramps and structures for eastbound and westbound I-70 and for Central Park Boulevard. I-70 between Sand Creek and Havana Street will also be paved in asphalt. This project is being funded by the City and County of Denver with CDOT oversight.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. with double lane closures from 11 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Occasional weekend work is possible.

Duration: June 2010 through Spring 2011
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16. US 287 from 10th Avenue to Baseline Road (State Highway 7)

Cost: $5.9 million (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Randy Furst

Work: Replaces approximately 230 concrete slabs, rotomills and paves two bridges on US 287 and conducts erosion control work on the east side of US 287.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Duration: May 2010 through December 2010
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17. Federal Boulevard (US 287) at 120th Avenue (State Highway 128)
Sheridan Boulevard (State Highway 95) – 52nd Avenue to 56th Avenue

Cost: $664,000

Contractor: K.E.C.I Colorado, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Randy Furst

Work: Upgrades the traffic signals at both locations to include mast arm poles and LED lights. A raised median will also be installed on Sheridan Avenue between 52nd Avenue and 56th Avenue to improve safety

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Duration: March 2010 through June 2010
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South Area (South Program Engineer Paul Jesaitis)
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Structures Inc. has excavation underway for the widening of Arapahoe Road under I-25. CDOT photo.

Cost: $2.4 million

Contractor: Structures, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Abe Lavassani

Work: Adds an additional through lane in each direction by placing the new lanes where the existing on-ramp lanes exist. This means that the third lane will be separated from the existing through lanes by the pier columns. In addition, a turn lane on westbound Arapahoe Road between the southbound I-25 off-ramp and Yosemite Street will be added and the center median will be modified to accommodate the new configuration.

Update: The majority of the work has been completed, but median work and paving remain. Over the next couple of months, crews will remove the medians on eastbound and westbound Arapahoe Road, pave the additional lane from southbound I-25 to westbound Arapahoe Road, complete asphalt paving through the construction zone and complete landscaping.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday through Thursday from 7:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. There will be occasional weekend work.

Duration: September 2009 through June 2010
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19. Southbound I-25 to I-225
Parker Road (State Highway 83) to Southbound I-225

Cost: $1.5 million

Contractor: ABCO Construction, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Abe Lavassani

Work: Installs an anti-icing treatment on the ramps from southbound I-25 to northbound I-225 and northbound Parker Road to southbound I-225 to improve traction. Automatic anti-icing systems will also be installed on the ramp from southbound I-25 to northbound I-225 and from southbound I-225 to southbound I-25.

Update: The traction material has been installed on the ramp from southbound I-25 to northbound I-225 and on one lane of the ramp from northbound Parker Road to southbound I-225. Crews will likely return in May to complete the paving on the second lane of the northbound Parker Road to southbound I-225 ramp. Crews will be wrapping up the installation of the two anti-icing systems in the next couple of weeks.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. and from 9 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday.

Duration: October 2009 through June 2010
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20. Parker Road (State Highway 83) at Arapahoe Road (State Highway 88)

Cost: $30 million (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Abe Lavassani

Work: The final phase of this interchange improvement project constructs a grade-separated interchange and the corresponding ramps and improves drainage. When complete, Parker Road will run over Arapahoe Road and the traffic signal will be removed for free-flowing traffic at the interchange.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Throughout construction, Parker Road or Arapahoe Road may be placed in a temporary alignment.

Duration: May 2010 through December 2011
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21. I-225 at Colfax Avenue (US 40)- Phase I

Cost: $1.4 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: Concrete Works of Colorado

Resident Engineer: Rick Erjavec

Work: This is the first phase of an interchange improvement project. This phase will reconstruct the southbound I-225 off-ramp to Colfax Avenue as well as the northbound I-225 on-ramp from Colfax Avenue. Drainage improvements will also be made. The City of Aurora will construct this phase with CDOT oversight.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or Sunday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Duration: November 2009 through April 2010
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22. I-225 at Colfax Avenue (US 40)- Phase 2

Cost: $17.9 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: Hamon Contractors, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Rick Erjavec

Work: The second phase of the interchange improvement project will construct the southbound off-ramp to 17th Avenue and Colfax Avenue along with the southern portion of 17th Avenue to serve inbound traffic. The City of Aurora will construct this phase with CDOT oversight.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or Sunday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Duration: April 2010 through December 2011
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23. I-225 – 2nd Avenue to Mississippi Avenue

Cost: $33 million (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Rick Erjavec

Work: Widens I-225 between 2nd Avenue and Mississippi Avenue to accommodate three lanes in each direction with an additional auxiliary lane. I-225 from north of Colfax Avenue to 2nd Avenue will be restriped to also accommodate three lanes in each direction. A new 8-10 foot concrete noise wall will be constructed near Mississippi Avenue to replace the deteriorating wooden fence and a new 8-10 foot noise wall will be constructed near Potomac Circle.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or Sunday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Duration: June 2010 through August 2011
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Castle Rock Construction crews continue to work on rehabilitation of the C-470 roadway. CDOT photo.

24. C-470 – I-25 to Santa Fe Drive (US 85)
C-470 Bike Trail – I-25 to I-70

Cost: $32 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: Castle Rock Construction Co.

Resident Engineer: Ron Buck

Work: Repairs or replaces concrete slabs along nine miles of C-470 and resurfaces C-470 in asphalt. Rehabilitates and replaces concrete slabs on the C-470 bicycle/pedestrian trail.

Update: To date, the concrete repairs are complete on westbound C-470 and the majority of eastbound C-470. Crews will complete the concrete work on eastbound C-470 in the coming months and then begin asphalt paving on both eastbound and westbound C-470. Bike path work is also still underway.

Work Hours: The majority of the roadway work on C-470 will take place from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday each weekend. Single lane closures are also possible Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Work on the bike path will take place Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Duration: July 2009 through September 2010
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The 1958 Valley Highway bridge over Alameda Avenue -- and the flash flooding that often occurs underneath it -- will be things of the past with a replacement project now getting underway by Jalisco International. CDOT photo.

25. I-25 at Alameda Avenue

Cost: $36.9 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: Jalisco International, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Ron Buck

Work: Replaces the Alameda Avenue bridge over I-25 with one that is wider to accommodate an additional lane in each direction. Minor improvements will also be made to I-25 under Alameda Avenue and drainage will be improved. This work is part of a larger project that will eventually improve I-25 as determined in the I-25 Valley Highway Environmental Impact Statement.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. with occasional weekend work.

Duration: April 2010 through September 2011
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26. Santa Fe Drive (US 85) at C-470

Cost: $32 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: Edward Kraemer & Sons, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Ron Buck

Work: Constructs a flyover ramp from southbound Santa Fe Drive to eastbound C-470 to improve safety and mobility.

Work Hours:
Santa Fe Drive: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
C-470: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Full closures of C-470 will also be required for girder installation, bridge deck panel installation and concrete deck pour.

Duration: June 2010 through January 2012
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27. I-25 – 6th Avenue to 23rd Avenue

Cost: $4.3 million (ARRA project)

Contractor: Brannan Sand and Gravel Co.

Resident Engineer: Tony Gross

Work: Rotomills and resurfaces approximately three miles of I-25 in asphalt.

Update: The majority of work is complete, but crews need to complete some smoothness grinding and some erosion control work.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Duration: June 2009 through April 2010
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Concrete Express crews excavate for new bridge pier footings at the Hampden Avenue bridge over Federal Boulevard. CDOT photo.

28. Hampden Avenue (US 285) -Kipling Street to Federal Boulevard

Cost: $40.1 million

Contractor: Concrete Express, Inc.

Resident Engineer: Tony Gross

Work: Replaces the Wadsworth Boulevard (State Highway 121), Pierce Street and Federal Boulevard (State Highway 88) bridges over Hampden Avenue and reconstructs Hampden Avenue between Wadsworth Boulevard and Federal Boulevard.

Update: Construction started near Federal Boulevard with crews realigning Hampden Avenue to accommodate reconstruction in the median. In late April/early May, construction will begin to replace the Hampden Avenue bridge over Federal Boulevard. Construction will continue to move west as work progresses.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Full closures of Hampden Avenue will also be required for girder installation, bridge deck panel installation and concrete deck pour.

Duration: January 2010 through June 2011

Region 6 Traffic Engineering Projects (Traffic Engineer Steve Hersey)
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29. State Highway 7 at York Street

Cost: $750,000 (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Jake Koenig

Work: Adds an auxiliary lane on State Highway 7 from 168th Avenue to York Street and installs a new traffic signal at the SH 7/York Street intersection.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Duration: June 2010 through November 2010
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30. C-470 – Quebec Street to I-25
C-470 – Morrison Road to Wadsworth Boulevard
Santa Fe Drive (US 85)- Aspen Grove Way to Ridge Road

Cost: $3.3 million (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Leela Rajasekar

Work: Installs median cable guardrail in two locations along C-470 to help prevent crossover accidents. Concrete median barrier will also be installed on Santa Fe Drive.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Duration: June 2010 through February 2011
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31. US 6 – Heritage Road to 19th Avenue

Cost: $500,000 (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Leela Rajasekar

Work: Installs a wildlife fence along US 6 to help prevent wildlife/vehicle collisions.

Work Hours: Single lane closures Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday through
Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Duration: August 2010 through November 2010
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32. Parker Road (State Highway 83) – Belleview Avenue to Hampden Avenue

Cost: $180,000 (estimate)

Contractor: Yet to be determined

Resident Engineer: Alazar Tesfaye

Work: Restripes Parker Road to accommodate a third through lane in each direction.

Work Hours: Sunday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Duration: May 2010 through June 2010

Cut-away view shows the underground bus station below 17th Street with the covered access to street level. Union Station Neighborhood Co. rendering.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

A divided RTD board committee has given preliminary approval to removing a set of planned moving walkways from the design of the FasTracks transfer facility at Denver Union Station, a controversial element that has divided transit advocates and helped spawn a lawsuit.

By a 7-5 vote, members of the FasTracks Monitoring Committee – where the elected board typically gets its first look at FasTracks issues – approved a recommendation to delete the pair of moving sidewalks from the design. They had been proposed to cover 217 feet of the total distance of about 850 feet that will separate the new light rail and heavy rail passenger platforms.

The board still must consider final approval next week. With three members absent for the committee vote this week, one more member still must cast a “yes” vote to approve the change, assuming all 15 are present.

The heavy-rail commuter platform was originally planned to be adjacent to where the current light rail platform is located. Under a proposal from the developer, Union Station Neighborhood Co., in 2006, the commuter rail will stay there but the light rail will be relocated north two and a half blocks near the freight tracks and Millennium Bridge, with a new underground bus transfer facility as part of the multimodal station, replacing Market Street Station on the 16th Street Mall.

The underground bus station would double as a connector between the two rail modes, and the mall shuttle system will be extended to reach down to the new light rail platform.

The moving sidewalks were originally a concession to passengers, such as airport-bound families toting luggage, who would have to cover the distance between rail platforms.

But refined design of the 22-bay underground bus facility narrowed the width of the space so that a bus staging lane could be added underground. That made the walkways an impediment rather than a help to pedestrians, according to a report to the board by Rick Clarke, FasTracks’ acting manager for engineering.

That didn’t stop five board members from voting no, however, in a rare display of division over FasTracks among the board.

“The reason I voted for the amended master plan (several years ago) was because of the moving sidewalk,” said board member Bill Christopher. “Just fundamentally, when we moved the light rail station out, we got the moving sidewalk. But now, we have the moving sidewalk out but the light rail station is still out there.”

Rendering shows passengers headed toward commuter trains from behind Union Station. Courtesy Union Station Neighborhood Co.

Christopher voted against taking out the moving walks, along with members Matt Cohen, John Tayer, Jack O’Boyle and Wally Pulliam. Those voting in favor were Bill James, Bruce Daly, Noel Busck, Lee Kemp, Chris Martinez, Kent Bagley and Tom Tobiassen.

“One of the things I was able to tell people who were concerned about the distance between the light rail and commuter rail was that at least we were having a moving sidewalk,” Tayer said.

“We’re doing this at the expense of providing our passengers a convenient way of getting from light rail to commuter rail,” said Pulliam, who went on later in the meeting to vote against advancing $9 million from FasTracks to the developer to get construction underway in advance of receiving federal loans for the project this spring.

Pulliam wanted RTD to go with an alternative that would widen the pedestrian area within the bus station by deleting the six-bus staging lane on the west side of the underground facility. That would bring an additional 11 feet of width to the pedestrian area.

But Clarke said the staging area is essential and RTD would have difficulty finding such an area above-ground nearby in the lower downtown neighborhood, where people object to idling buses.

The move saves the $480 million project the $2 million cost of the mechanisms, known in the industry as “travelators.” It also removes $25,000 a year in anticipated operating and maintenance costs for them.

The irony is that many who advocate the moving walkways would rather not have them at all – they have been urging RTD not to relocate the light rail platform at all, but to keep it where it is and make it adjacent to the new commuter rail boarding area.

The design is part of a lawsuit filed by transit-advocate ColoRail, which says the inconvenience of the transfer will hurt ridership. RTD maintains the level of projected ridership transfers between light rail and heavy rail is small enough to minimize the problem. The transit agency also says it is too late to engage in the substantial redesign without imperiling the already tight schedule.

The transit improvements at Union Station must be completed by 2014 in time for FasTracks’ West Corridor light rail, currently under construction, to terminate there and for the imminent start of construction on the heavy-rail East Corridor line to Denver International Airport.

Other FasTracks corridors planned to terminate at Union Station are the Gold Line from Arvada-Wheat Ridge, Northwest Rail from Longmont, Boulder, Broomfield and Westminster, North Metro from Thornton and Commerce City, and the C and E light rail lines of the existing Southwest and Southeast Corridors from Littleton and Douglas County.

Simulation shows a typical streetcar running on Colfax Avenue at Columbine Street. Yes, the artist forgot to add the tracks -- this is just a simulation.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

RTD and other agencies that are planning transit projects will have to wait for new rules to be drafted to see if the Obama Administration’s decision last week removing Bush Administration restrictions on funding transit will bring more money into FasTracks corridors or projects like the proposed Colfax Streetcar.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week that making transit grant funding decisions based solely on bottom-line mathematical calculations of, essentially, cost over travel-time savings failed to take into account whether projects improved a community’s livability.

You can read the text of LaHood’s speech here.

As a result, the DOT will draft new regulations for its New Starts and Small Starts grant programs for transit corridors to allow consideration of such things as lowering carbon emissions, promoting economic development and relieve congestion.

RTD says it’s way too early to know the impact any changes might have on FasTracks corridors that didn’t meet the old threshold for funding – the North Metro heavy rail commuter line serving Commerce City and Thornton, the I-225 light rail extension from Parker Road to the Fitzsimons medical campus and Smith Road, and the Northwest Rail commuter line serving Westminster, Broomfield, Boulder and Longmont. Also, FasTracks extensions to existing light rail corridors don’t get federal funding.

FasTracks’ financial crunch – it’s projected to cost $6.5 billion through 2017 but RTD is $2.45 billion short of cash to pay for it – has several corridors facing potentially lengthy delays in completion, to beyond 2035, unless new funds can be found. While RTD’s elected board is mulling over the possibility of asking voters to approve a second tax hike for it, additional federal funds would be a help.

In addition, the new rules could open up the possibility of federal funding for Denver’s proposed Colfax Streetcar project. The city has been looking at a fixed-track streetcar system along the region’s busiest transit corridor from Interstate 25 to Syracuse Street. You can read about the city’s feasibility study here.

LaHood’s announcement is actually not a radical change, but a return to the broader language in the federal statute that already laid out many factors to be considered in funding projects in addition to cost effectiveness. As LaHood noted in a letter last week to transit stakeholders, those considerations were taken off the table by the Bush Administration in 2005 in favor of focusing solely on cost-effectiveness.

U.S.C. 49 Section 5309(d) had allowed the Federal Transit Administration to approve grants to new projects that are “justified based on a comprehensive review of its mobility improvements, environmental benefits, cost effectiveness, operating efficiencies, economic development effects, and public transportation supportive land use policies and future patterns.”

That changed in 2005 with the administrative restriction that LaHood lifted.

“Everywhere I go, the message is loud and clear: People want more and better transportation infrastructure in their communities – from highways and bridges to light rail, multi-modal transit stations, bike paths, and walkways,” LaHood told attendees at a Transportation Research Board luncheon last week.

“We’re going to free our flagship transit capital program from long-standing requirements that have allowed us only to green-light projects that meet very narrow cost and performance criteria,” LaHood continued. “Instead, as we evaluate major transit projects going forward, we’ll consider all the factors that help communities reduce their carbon footprint, spur economic activity, and relieve congestion.

“To put it simply: We will take livability into account. This new approach will help us do a much better job aligning our priorities and values with our investments in transit projects that truly strengthen communities. We’ll finally be able to make the case for investing in popular streetcar projects and other transit systems that people want – and that our old ways of doing business didn’t value enough.”

Streetcar service in Portland, Ore.

Of 10 FasTracks corridors – nine rail and one Bus Rapid transit – only three qualify for federal New Starts grants under the 2005 restriction. One, the West Corridor light rail serving Denver, Lakewood and Golden, is in full construction and did receive a $308 million Federal Transit Administration New Starts grant. The grants are paid out over a multi-year timetable laid out in a formal agreement. The FasTracks East Corridor to Denver International Airport and the Gold Line to Arvada-Wheat Ridge – which are heavy-rail commuter trains rather than light rail – also qualify for a combined $1 billion in grants.

Two of RTD’s existing light rail corridors received New Starts grants — the Southeast Corridor, built as part of the T-REX project, and the Southwest Corridor to Littleton.

But FasTracks corridors with lower projected ridership compared with their costs didn’t meet the more restrictive Bush threshold. Whether they will meet the new threshold based on the full statutory range of considerations can’t be known right now.

In fact, removing the restriction opens up the competition for limited funds to a broader range of projects in other cities that are anxious to get funding as well, so there are no guarantees that eligibility will result in funding.

Using a cost-effectiveness index as the sole basis for making grant decisions meant that corridors facing stiff cost challenges due to site factors such as terrain or right-of-way issues – constructability issues having nothing to do with actual ridership or travel time calculations – could have been disqualified for reasons unrelated to the level of ridership and the travel time calculations.

For example, the FasTracks North Metro Corridor sustained cost escalations from several constructability problems, primarily the need to get around the complicated freight railroad crossing area called Sand Creek Junction in Commerce City, where the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroads cross each other and the creek under Interstate 270. That has RTD looking at virgin alignment with more right-of-way acquisition. There are also more retaining walls and noise walls required in the project than originally thought.

In order to keep projects that were close to the threshold on the fundable side of the line, project sponsors would trim elements that helped the line perform better. LaHood’s action could put them back in the mix.

For instance, on the West Corridor, RTD cut back the west segment of the line from the Denver Federal Center to the Jefferson County Government center to a single-track section. That restricts potential growth in service because a single track will permit trains to run with headway frequencies no shorter than 15 minutes. While that is sufficient for opening day projected ridership, it restricts the ability to add rush-hour frequencies at seven and a half or five minutes.

Looking north along I-25 where I-225 splits off to the right. CDOT photo.

Roadgeeks like to name things.

Today we’re going to try to hang a name on something.

Usually, we like the technical names. We like to talk about “collector-distributor lanes,” the barrier-separated lanes that run alongside the through-lanes at freeway interchanges to allow exiting and entering traffic to merge and weave safely off the high-speed freeway. They’re used in the Narrows section of Interstate 25 between Washington Street and University Boulevard. My wife, Harriet, calls them “hunter-gatherer” lanes, perhaps a more picturesque description.

In that spirit, I’m proposing that we give a household name to the recently rebuilt and expanded interchange in the Denver Tech Center where Interstate 225 dumps into Interstate 25.

I want to call it the Full House. That’s the name that fellow roadgeek Duncan Shaw, a news producer at CBS4 Denver, proposed for it in 2001.

It works on two levels. One, if you were holding a poker hand with three twos and two fives, you’d have a full house. Two, the interchange handles more than 200,000 vehicles a day, making it one of the fullest places on the regional roadway system.

View Larger Map

We’ve got one of the unique names in the nation as far as interchanges go, with the Mousetrap at I-25 and Interstate 70 in the Globeville neighborhood. Technically, it’s a variation on what’s known as a Turbine Interchange, with sweeping circular ramps making the connections. Mind you, I don’t want to get into the middle of the debate over whether retired traffic reporter Don Martin or longtime Channel 7 television reporter Bill Clarke coined the Mousetrap term. But everyone knows it as the Mousetrap; they don’t say “You go north on I-25 and exit at I-70,” they say, “Take I-25 to the Mousetrap.”

So it’s time we stopped saying “Go down I-25 to that Semi-Directional T interchange at I-225 and head north.”

It’s time to play the Full House.

Headed from southbound I-225 to southbound I-25, under light rail bridges, in the Full House interchange. Photo by Ryan Wanner, of Ryan's Digital Roadgeekdom at http://r-dub.us/

Duncan says he threw out that name in 2001 during an online discussion on usenet.

“I first proposed the name ‘Full House’ for Denver’s I-25/I-225 interchange in the misc.transport.road newsgroup back in 2001 during a thread on interchange names where people were suggesting some for ones that didn’t have regularly-used names.

“I felt it was both a creative and unique name. You’ll find ‘spaghetti bowls’ and ‘mixmasters’ all over the country that could describe any number of interchanges. But I can only find 21 in the United States where both the same pattern exists as I-25/I-225 and the numbers could make up a legitimate full house hand.”

(Let’s pause here to appreciate the level of roadgeekery it takes to scour the nation’s highway system for all of the places where the potential exists to have two- and three-digit interstates meet that contain three of one number and two of another number.)

“For instance, I-10/I-110 would not count since there are no 1’s and 0’s in playing cards.”

Here is a link to a list of highway interchange nicknames from around the country.

And here is a link to a glossary and diagrams of various types of freeway interchanges.

The old interchange, before T-REX's extreme makeover highway edition, had hazardous left-lane access ramps.

The old Tech Center interchange had been build with a left-lane exit and entrance onto I-25 from I-225, which led to hazardous merging as traffic congestion grew over the years. Contractors Parsons Transportation Group and Kiewit, which teamed for the design-build project, redesigned this interchange while threading the light rail bridges through it as well.

In 2003, in my Lane Ranger column in the Rocky Mountain News, I solicited interchange names from readers, and Duncan’s name was, in my opinion, the best. I used it in my coverage whenever I could slip it past my editor. Matt Salek, a transportation engineer who maintains the Highways of Colorado web site with stats and data on every state highway, included the name on his site.

Duncan says that when he was a morning news producer at 9News working with traffic reporters Al Verlay and Tony LaMonica, he tried to dell them on the name as well, with little success.

But we can’t say that it caught on back then.

“At this point, I figure it will only be known – and remembered – by a limited number of people in the roadgeek community, and that’s fine with me,” Duncan said. “But it would have been nice to turn on the radio during rush hour, hear someone use the name I came up with during a traffic report, and know that drivers knew exactly where it was!”

So we already have the Mousetrap; Orange County, Calif., has the Orange Crush interchange; Chicago has the Hillside Strangler; Dallas has the High Five.

It’s time for people to start using the name Full House!

An RTD light rail train heads through the Full House interchange while highway traffic passes underneath.

Rendering shows the proposed FasTracks station at Sky Ridge in Lone Tree.

RTD intends to reinstate the G Line light rail, its only suburb-to-suburb rapid transit service, after it builds a 2.3-mile extension to the Southeast Corridor tracks into Lone Tree as part of the FasTracks program.

The line, which ran from Aurora’s Nine Mile Station at Parker Road and Interstate 225 south to the Lincoln Station, was eliminated earlier this year due to low ridership. But it would merit resumed service because in conjunction with the light rail extension up the Interstate 225 Corridor through Aurora, it would link the growing Fitzsimons medical campus on Colfax Avenue with the growing Douglas County area around Lone Tree and the RidgeGate area, including Sky Ridge Medical Center.

In between it would make stops at Aurora City Center, Parker Road, the Denver Tech Center, Park Meadows and the entire southeast business corridor. The operating plan is outlined in an environmental evaluation of the estimated $184.3 million Southeast Corridor Extension. That study and a companion one for the FasTracks I-225 extension indicate they would result in ridership increases of 17,600 and 17,900 per weekday, respectively.

You can read the executive summary for the Southeast Corridor Extension environmental evaluation here. The study found mostly construction-related impacts and outlines actions RTD will take to mitigate them.

The G Line would cover about 23 miles between RidgeGate and Fitzsimons. By 2035, RTD would operate trains every 15 minutes throughout the weekday.

In addition to the revived G Line, the Southeast Corridor Extension would also provide three more stations for the E and F Line trains that go to downtown Denver.

The Southeast Corridor Extension environmental evaluation was presented to the public Thursday night in the Lone Tree Recreation Center. You can view the presentation that was given at the meeting by clicking this link.

Simulation shows the proposed light rail flyover bridge over I-25 at RidgeGate in Douglas County

Starting at the current end-of-line at Lincoln Station, the double-track addition would run south around the Lincoln Avenue Interstate 25 interchange ramps and go over Lincoln on a bridge. After stopping at a new station near Sky Ridge Medical Center – a so-called “Kiss and Ride” because there would be no transit parking – the tracks would turn east and fly over I-25 to the east side into the Lone Tree City Center in the proposed RidgeGate planned development. There would be another Kiss and Ride station there as the tracks turn south, then proceed to a new end-of-line station called RidgeGate, where there would be a 1,000-car park-n-Ride facility.

You can view an interactive map of the corridor, with the capability of making geotagged comments, at this link.

Voters in Lone Tree approved joining the RTD taxing district in 2003 on the basis of plans for this extension to the T-REX project, which was then under construction.

But construction is now uncertain. That’s because the Southeast Corridor Extension is one of the seven FasTracks corridors at risk of being trimmed due to a budget gap of $2.2 billion in the program. A large spike in construction costs, right-of-way and project scope combined with the recession’s impact on RTD’s sales tax revenues have put a financial hole in the program. RTD currently estimates it would take $6.9 billion to complete the original FasTracks plan by 2017, the original schedule. When a sales tax hike for it was approved by voters in 2004, the cost was estimated at $4.7 billion.

RTD annually evaluates the entire program’s costs based on changing prices over the life of the program, and the new figure is expected to be calculated sometime in January. Because construction is spread over each year until 2017, each year’s actual results in construction cost inflation, combined with fresh projections for future inflation and tax revenues, combine to influence the bottom line. Early in the program, small changes can result in big differences down the road.

The Southeast Corridor Extension would run for 2.3 miles south from Lincoln Station to RidgeGate.

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 Photo.

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. Public officials representing those corridors, mostly in Aurora, Adams County, Broomfield and Boulder County, have criticized RTD as short-changing them. The expenditures on them so far are for such things as environmental studies and preliminary engineering and design work, right-of-way acquisition and purchase of train cars to run on them.

The figures were laid out Tuesday in an update RTD gave to a task force of the Metro Mayors Caucus. Along with other stakeholders, the caucus – which unanimously backed the sales tax hike that voters approved in 2004 to pay for FasTracks – is now working with RTD toward an agreement over how to proceed now that FasTracks can’t meet its original 2017 completion date with its current projected revenues.

Hefty increases in construction costs, freight railroad requirements and added project scope, combined with the floor falling out of revenue projections during the recession, have left the program with what is currently a $2.2 billion funding gap in the 2017 plan. What was to cost $4.7 billion when voters approved FasTracks is now, with the additions, projected to cost $6.9 billion.

Sixty percent of the commitment is for the first FasTracks rail corridor to go to full construction, the West Corridor light rail through Denver, Lakewood and Golden. RTD has spent or contracted the total $707.6 million cost of the 12.1-mile line. Of that, about $510 million is for the two major construction contracts with Denver Transit Construction Group and Balfour Beatty. The rest is for the required environmental impact study, engineering, design and land acquisition.

Retaining wall along Sixth Avenue Freeway will support light rail track as it goes up and over Sixth and Indiana Street on the concrete piers in the distance. RTD Photo.

Ironically, the two corridors with the next-highest commitment levels are among the ones threatened with cuts because of the program’s funding gap. The North Metro commuter rail corridor, an 18-mile electrified heavy-rail project through Denver, Commerce City and Thornton, has $135.7 million in spending and committed funds. RTD has spent about $125 million for corridor property, including $117 million to purchase the Union Pacific freight track right-of-way it will use for the project.

The third-place corridor is the Interstate 225 light rail extension in Aurora, where 88 percent of the $70.9 million committed so far is tied up in a contract with Siemens to produce all of the light rail train cars that will be used on it. Several of the vehicles already have been delivered to RTD.

North Metro and I-225 fall into the group of projects threatened with cuts in part because they do not qualify for federal funding. The issue has created conflict between RTD and the communities that would be served by those threatened lines because the transit agency wants to complete the ones that do qualify for federal assistance – the West Corridor along with the East Corridor commuter rail to Denver International Airport and the Gold Line to Arvada and Wheat Ridge. West Corridor already has secured a $308 million grant agreement from the Federal Transit Administration. The East Corridor and Gold Line qualify for $1 billion combined in federal grants.

Cutting them back would cost the program that federal assistance. Conversely, RTD says, if it doesn’t get the federal grants at all, it will only be able to fully construct the East Corridor to DIA, along with the West Corridor, by 2017. In that case, the Gold Line would be put on hold as well as the other remaining corridors, possibly to all be built only as existing funds allow over time.

But officials in those other corridors are demanding equity since their residents are paying the four-tenths cent sales tax for FasTracks. RTD and the mayors are discussing whether to go to voters as early as next year to ask for a second sales tax increase to complete these at-risk lines.

One proposal, from Mayor Ed Tauer of Aurora, is that the second tax be earmarked for the at-risk lines. RTD is examining the ramifications of such a restriction.

RTD annually evaluates its cost and revenue projections, and plans to have new figures in January. Estimated costs could go up, but like earlier this year, they could also go down as worldwide construction materials prices back off their historic highs from 2005 onward. In 2008, RTD estimated FasTracks’ total 2017 costs at $7.9 billion; the estimate dropped by $1 billion this year. But the revenue projection fell more, resulting in the $2.2 billion shortfall.

“We are continuing to analyze the implications of this approach, and to work with our stakeholders to determine how to move forward,” said FasTracks planner Julie Skeen.

Funds committed to FasTracks program elements:

• $707.6 million: West Corridor light rail
• $135.7 million: North Metro commuter rail
• $92.5 million: Denver Union Station conversion
• $70.9 million: Interstate 225 light rail
• $40.1 million: East Corridor commuter rail
• $28.3 million: Southeast Corridor light rail extension
• $22.5 million: Southwest Corridor light rail extension
• $18.7 million: US 36 Bus Rapid Transit project
• $14.3 million: Expansion of Elati light rail maintenance facility
• $12.2 million: Northwest Rail commuter rail
• $11.5 million: Gold Line commuter rail
• $10.6 million: Central Corridor light rail extension
• $6.6 million: Commuter rail maintenance facility

• $1,171.5 million: Total committed funds

Iliff Station site plan on the east side of I-225.

RTD plans to jump start its FasTracks program by breaking out a segment of the I-225 light rail corridor up to Iliff Avenue for early construction starting late next year if metro voters approve a second sales-tax increase to complete FasTracks.

Later this month, the RTD board will consider a $3.5 million contract award to Michael Baker Jr. Inc., the engineering firm that did the environmental evaluation for the 12-mile I-225 Corridor, to do final design on the initial 1.4-mile segment to Iliff Avenue.

The construction of tracks northward from the existing Southeast Corridor end-of-line at Nine Mile Station – at Interstate 225 and Parker Road – to the first new station at Iliff Avenue would bring faster relief to parking problems at the jammed Nine Mile park-n-Ride garage, said RTD’s project manager Larry Warner.

Warner, formerly with the Colorado Department of Transportation, was the project manager for the T-REX project.

Since the 2006 opening day of the Southeast Corridor light rail, built as part of T-REX, the 1,225 spaces at Nine Mile typically fill up by 7 a.m.

“We’re looking to get that leg open as soon as possible,” Warner said. “We’re looking at providing an early opening of that segment because of our parking problems at Nine Mile.”

Iliff Station has plans for a 600-space surface parking lot. Adding that many spaces upstream from Nine Mile is projected to offload a large number of the parkers from the north who head to Nine Mile, by giving them a closer option.

At the same meeting on Oct. 20 when the board will consider the Baker contract, it will also consider approval of the I-225 Environmental Evaluation that Baker performed. That process took early engineering on the line to the 30 percent level.

If RTD is able to build the I-225 Corridor, it would bring back the G Line light rail service that it eliminated earlier this year due to low ridership. In the service plan outlined in the Environmental Evaluation, the existing H Line trains between Nine Mile and downtown would instead originate one stop north at the Iliff Station. H Line trains would not go all the way to Fitzsimons or the Peoria end-of-line station. They would start out at a pocket track between the northbound and southbound tracks at the Iliff Station, go south to Interstate 25 then north to downtown.

Map from the I-225 study shows the proposed routings and transfer points for the G and H lines.

Completing the I-225 link to Fitzsimons would provide the added ridership to make the G Line effective.

Because RTD has the funds on hand now to pay for final engineering on the short segment to Iliff, it can get the project shovel-ready by next year and advertise for contractors immediately after a November election on a possible 0.4-cent sales tax increase.

Warner said that even if voters turn down the increase – which would double the FasTracks tax to 0.8 cents, or eight cents on a $10 purchase – the short segment to Iliff still makes sense as an addition to the I-225 line by addressing the problems at Nine Mile. The value of the final design would not be lost while RTD seeks other resources to build it in the event the tax hike fails, Warner said.

The plan also gibes with Aurora’s desire to relieve the congestion at Nine Mile.

The I-225 Corridor is one of the FasTracks projects imperiled by the cost increases and revenue reductions plaguing the overall program. Unlike the East Corridor to Denver International Airport and the Gold Line to Arvada/Wheat Ridge, it does not qualify for federal funding. Rather, it relies entirely on local funding.

Meanwhile, FasTracks’ costs have jumped from $4.7 billion to $6.9 billion through 2017, the original completion year, while the recession has cut revenues to the point that available financing to build it all has dropped to $4.7 billion through 2017.

RTD is looking at a public-private partnership to build the East and Gold Line corridors to bring private capital into the program and free up its own resources for the seven other projects.

But even with that, RTD says it cannot build all of the lines to completion without another tax increase or stretching out the completion date at current tax levels as long as 2034.

The I-225 Corridor preferred alternative alignment and station locations.

While RTD plans to build all but one of the remaining projects using a design-build method, in which it hires a joint design and construction team of contractors as was done with T-REX, the Iliff extension would be done with traditional design-bid-build.

That’s where an agency does all the design, then puts that out to bid to the contracting community. RTD doesn’t have the resources on hand to do a design-build procurement for the extension, but it can fund the final design.

Doing it now will allow RTD to seek construction bids on the heels of an election.

When RTD closed out the books last week on its half of the T-REX multimodal expansion along Interstates 25 and 225, it finished with $3.7 million left over out of its $879 million share of the $1.67 billion budget it split with the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Since the project was finished 22 months earlier than the original schedule, this forms the basis for RTD’s claim that the Southeast Corridor, which extended light rail from Broadway Station to Lincoln Avenue in Douglas County and Parker Road in Aurora, was completed under budget and ahead of schedule.

CDOT makes the same claim for its highway portion of the project, which added lanes to both freeways, reconfigured the “Full House” interchange of I-25/225, added Intelligent Transportation Systems for better traffic management, replaced all of the out-of-date bridges and fixed the drainage problem that caused storm flooding under the Logan Street overpass. CDOT finished $8 million under its $790 million budget.

Skeptics cry foul. They point out that the Major Investment Study on the Southeast Corridor, completed in 1997, said the light rail project would cost $445 million. They want you to think RTD went double over its budget.

The skeptics are either uninformed or deliberately misleading you. The project indeed came in under budget, for both RTD and CDOT.

The $445 million projected cost of the southeast corridor light rail outlined in the 1997 MIS was not a budget. As it states specifically in the document, it is in 1995 dollars. Patient drivers will recall that the project was built between 2001 and 2006.

It is intellectually dishonest to portray the estimated costs in an initial study document as some sort of final budget, because the costs are stated in constant dollars – what it would cost if it could all be built right then and there. That’s because no one knows in the beginning when, or whether, the project can be built so it’s impossible to set up an actual budget. You simply don’t know in what year you’ll have to buy the steel or concrete or labor. All you can do is quantify how much of each item you think you’ll need, and state its cost at the time.

In this case, it’s even worse. The 1997 MIS stated costs in 1995 dollars.

Projects are not paid for in “constant dollars,” they are paid for in “year-of-expenditure dollars.” They are not the same thing. When it’s time to make an actual budget, estimators take the unit quantities for each piece of work, determine in what year it is needed and then estimate inflation trends to come up with an actual “year of expenditure” cost.

In the case of T-REX, trying to compare the estimate of light rail cost when it was stated in 1995 dollars to the budget for when it actually would be built between 2001 and 2006 is, simply, bad math.

Skeptics are feeding you an apple and claiming it’s an orange.

One other factor makes the comparison with the early figure bogus.

The MIS outlined a different project. The Southeast Corridor light rail plan in 1997 had only 10 stations in the first phase; the T-REX project advanced the Yale, Orchard and Dayton stations from a later phase and incorporated them into the opening day plan.

But the biggest difference between the 1997 MIS and the 1999 EIS wasn’t with RTD, it was with CDOT.

When Bill Owens became governor in 1999, he ordered up a new look at the highway improvements that the MIS outlined for I-25 and 225. Because CDOT hadn’t been able to identify any source of money to do a full blown widening of the freeways, the 1997 study had no added through lanes at all. It consisted only of some shoulder widening for breakdown and emergency access, auxiliary lanes between the ramps between Arapahoe and Orchard roads, the braided ramp separating traffic entering northbound at Belleview Avenue from the traffic exiting onto I-225, and the drainage work at Logan.

Total cost of the highway work in the MIS was only $57 million.

But Owens had a plan to get the money CDOT needed to widen I-25. In November 1999, the state put the TRANS Bonds measure on the ballot to ask voters statewide for borrowing authority to issue up to $1.7 billion in bonds to accelerate work on up to 28 vital transportation corridors around the state, with the lion’s share of the money earmarked for T-REX.

The measure won, and CDOT was able to join RTD in a much larger project that added four full lanes south of Belleview and two lanes north of there and along I-225. It added to overall right-of-way costs for the wider building envelope.

So since CDOT’s budget ended up at $790 million, would critics say the costs ballooned 14-fold? Well, maybe they would, but they’d be wrong. The scope of work is what ballooned, and rightly so given the much safer and congestion-free segment of highway that resulted.

Now, it doesn’t matter to me whether you’re going to be for or against a highway project or a transit line. What does matter is being straight about it either way.

In RTD’s case, at the end of the environmental impact study, the projected cost of the light rail project was $879 million. And that’s where it ended up – minus $3.7 million.

The final close-out of the project had the funds left over even after RTD spent some of the surplus on extra items after the project opened, including access to Park Meadows mall, three pedestrian bridges, and upgrades and art at stations.

T-REX Project Map

T-REX was a total $1.75 billion project done in partnership by RTD and the Colorado Department of Transportation. The multimodal approach to widening Interstates 25 and 225 with 17 miles of new lanes and a big new interchange plus extending the light rail system for 19 miles was unique in the nation. Using a design-build method of contracting to speed up the process, contractors Kiewit and Parsons Transportation Group brought the project in 22 months ahead of the initial schedule.

The project extended along Interstate 25 and 225 between Broadway, Parker Road in Aurora and Lincoln Avenue in Douglas County. The initial budget of $1.67 billion grew not because of cost overruns or budget-busting, but because RTD, CDOT and third parties such as Denver, Greenwood Village and others including private developers paid for additional items they wanted built concurrently.

Among the items RTD added to the project with the budget surplus:

• Three pedestrian bridges
• Access to Park Meadows Mall
• Commissioned art at various stations
• Louisiana/Pearl Station plaza
• Power upgrades to the entire system
• New track crossover and tail track at Lincoln Station
• Power switches at the Southmoor Station
• Overhead Catenary System (OCS) overlaps
• Additional lightning protection for electrical equipment
• Additional safety barriers
• Dayton Station access to Boston St.
• Arapahoe Station plaza
• Dry Creek pedestrian bridge extension
• Nine Mile canopy

During the project, managers absorbed extra work while remaining on schedule. RTD’s budget at the start was $879 million, but added elements as extra funding became available to get up to the final total.

For instance, RTD landed a federal grant for $11.5 million for an electronic data system that was an upgrade to the initial project.

CDOT also added project element s into the project as it went along, successfully replacing the Colorado Boulevard and Hampden Avenue bridges over I-25 after it got a $15 million loan from the state Transportation Commission, since repaid. Those bridges hadn’t been included in the original [project because of a lack of funds.

Third parties that wanted enhancements also added to the total. Greenwood Village came up with $7.4 million for several upgrades, including better looking bridges and rail stations and a new design for the Arapahoe Station to lure development, and Denver paid $2.92 million to add a concrete plaza over the Louisiana-Pearl light-rail station, which is down at the highway level. A private developer paid to add two floors to the Lincoln Avenue end-of-line station.

Some of the add-ons were much smaller. The University of Denver paid $7,588 to have T-REX paint the school’s colors at the University light-rail station. And the Parliament Apartments, atop a hill at the I-225 interchange, paid $3,652 to lower the noise wall so it doesn’t obscure the brick sign and flagpoles advertising the complex.

Officials estimated the cost of the current widening project, slated to begin next year, at around $33 million. Widening I-225 from Mississippi to Parker Road may cost around $100 million, and officials said there is no timetable for that improvement yet.

Rick Erjavec, resident engineer for CDOT, said widening I-225 is part of a larger project begun nearly 10 years ago with the improvements to the East Iliff Avenue interchange and the East 6th Avenue interchange.

Read the entire story at the Aurora Sentinel.