Crews for the Regional Transportation District are scheduled to close one lane in each direction of U.S. 36 between Church Ranch Boulevard and Wadsworth Parkway from 6 a.m. through 9 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 27, to pour the curbs on the deck of the pedestrian bridge.

While the public is reacting to proposals that could radically restructure the famous 16th Street Mall, RTD plans to test different methods of fixing recurring problems with the mall’s infamous and recurrently loose granite pavers.

A group of rail transit advocates asked a federal judge on Tuesday to stop FasTracks construction at Denver Union Station until the court can rule in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the environmental approval for the work.

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

The Regional Transportation District has put together a $122.6 million wish list of projects that are ready to go in the event Congress approves a second stimulus program for transportation infrastructure. Half of that total consists of four FasTracks pieces totaling $60.5 million.

Lakewood Edge reports that RTD’s West Corridor light rail contractor is removing the tall cottonwoods that line the 13th Avenue rail right-of-way.

The Denver Union Station Project Authority’s contractor for the Denver Union Station redevelopment project, Kiewit Western, will begin early construction activities at Denver Union Station beginning on Monday, Feb. 22, 2010. Traffic will be redirected on Wewatta to one lane in each direction on the westbound side for a few weeks starting on Monday, Feb. 22.

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

The U.S. Department of Transportation is giving a $10 million grant to extend U.S. 36 bus-car pool lanes and adding toll-paying solo drivers – far short of the $200 million the state sought but allowing work to proceed incrementally.

The Denver Business Journal reports that a consultant team has proposed three alternatives for changes to the 16th Street Mall. One leaves the transit lanes in place, a second pushed them together in the median, as the upper and lower mall already are configured, and the third puts northbound shuttles on 15th Street to create more pedestrian space.