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

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

When FasTracks rolls out the bridge that will span West 6th Avenue on the west side of the Federal Center, it will do so literally, closing down a stretch of the heavily traveled highway for two days.
And the Regional Transportation District plans to make the snail’s pace placement of the bridge a spectator event.

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

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

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

FasTracks construction of the new Sheridan Boulevard bridge is on schedule – good news for drivers through the two-lane work zone – and the structure may get its first girders next week. View a video of the work here and click on the story for an additional slide show.

Lakewood Edge reports that the public will encounter delays or detours at the Jefferson County government campus on Johnson Road in the coming weeks due to West Corridor light rail construction. Crews moved in Monday to begin operations that include excavation for retaining walls and the parking garage, underground utility relocations, station construction and roadwork. During construction, the bike path just south of the complex will be closed and pedestrians will be re-routed north on Johnson Road to Jefferson County Parkway.

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.

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.