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The Google Street View above shows the I-70 embankment where RTD’s West Corridor light rail will go under the freeway on its alignment to the Jefferson County Government Center in Golden.

It might seem like a reverse way of making a tunnel, because it is.

But the contractor for RTD’s FasTracks West Corridor light rail says “top down” construction will spare major traffic disruptions while building the tunnel under Interstate 70, on the north side of the Sixth Avenue Freeway just east of the intersection of Colfax Avenue.

It’s an innovative way to get the job done, demonstrating that there’s usually a way to deal with any logistical problem a construction job can face. In this case, it’s how to punch a train tunnel under the man-made embankment of one of the most vital travel corridors in the entire state without bringing drivers to a halt.

As it is, travelers using I-70 will encounter overnight lane restrictions for two to three weeks and one full weekend closure of the highway – once for eastbound and once for westbound – while crews build the single-track tunnel under both carriageways of I-70 over Sixth Avenue.

RTD light rail commuters on their way to the Broncos game this Sunday will board with more than they bargained for as McDonald’s makes Denver the third stop on its national “Try Free, Ride Free” tour.

This Sunday, McDonald’s street teams will hand out round trip, one day RTD light rail passes to Denver Broncos football fans on their way to the game at Invesco Field at Mile High, along with coupons for a free Angus Third Pounder at McDonald’s. McDonald’s street teams will be handing out rail passes and coupons at the I-25 and Broadway, University of Denver and Littleton/Mineral Light Rail stations from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. while supplies last. The Broncos game begins at 2:15 p.m.

“We are delighted to be able to treat Broncos fans riding the RTD light rail to a round trip daily pass and a coupon for a free Angus Third Pounder,” said Ron Lessnau, local Denver owner/operator. “As local community members and Broncos fans ourselves, we felt it would be a fun way to celebrate our newest menu item!”

Read the entire item at Business Wire.

View RTD Light Rail Platform Extensions in a larger map

Click on any of the blue balloons, then zoom in, to view the station platforms to be extended in the RTD contract.

RTD is set to lengthen seven more light rail station platforms to accommodate longer four-car trains, with a $2.26 million contract to a Longmont company.

The extensions will allow the transit agency to add capacity to each trip, as needed, now that it has started to take delivery of the first of 55 new light rail cars as part of the FasTracks program.

The seven stations included in the work are Mineral, Littleton Downtown, Oxford City of Sheridan, Englewood, Evans, Invesco Field at Mile High and Pepsi Center. They are on the Southwest Corridor and Central Platte Valley spur that serves Union Station. The work is scheduled to be completed in early 2011, and is the second phase of the project to upgrade the length of station platforms. The T-REX corridor and RTD’s original Central Corridor stations were lengthened in earlier contracts.

A technical glitch is hindering Sound Transit’s ability to count riders on the month-old Link light rail line, reports SeattlePI.com.

Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said Tuesday the system began malfunctioning in the last few weeks and shouldn’t affect the accuracy of previous reports on ridership numbers.

So was T-REX really under budget?

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.

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

The first of 55 new FasTracks light rail vehicles is on the tracks at RTD’s Elati yard near Santa Fe Drive and Dartmouth Avenue, and could be hauling passengers in two to three weeks. The delivery of these cars over the next 18 months will constitute all of the new light rail cars required by the anticipated service levels for the five FasTracks corridors that use light rail – the under-construction West Corridor, Interstate 225 Corridor and extensions to the existing Southwest, Southeast and Central corridors. They were done as an early purchase in November 2007 to lock in a lower price under a $187 million sole-source contract with the Germany-based Siemens Corp., which built all of RTD’s current fleet of 117 light rail vehicles.

RTD is building the FasTracks West Corridor light rail project with less money in its contingency fund than the Federal Transit Administration would like to see, RTD officials said Friday. FTA wanted RTD to maintain a $44 million contingency, but the current total set aside for unforeseen expenses in the three-and-a-half year project is $32 million.

If there’s a bright side, it’s that RTD built the more expensive T-REX light rail with even less in contingency funds, and wrapped it up with money left over.

RTD’s first FasTracks corridor to go to construction, the West Corridor light rail between Denver and Golden, was given the green light June 19. A week later, RTD’s person in charge of the job, Dennis Cole, died after suffering a stroke. Now, one of Cole’s colleagues, Jim Starling, has jumped in feet-first to take over and try to bring the job in on schedule and within its current budget — mindful that the future of the rest of the $6.9 billion program could rest on how well this one goes for the next year.

Seattle’s new Link light rail line operated by Sound Transit opened July 20 to light first-day ridership.