Rail plan might be facing a few cuts
Rising costs push FasTracks planners to suggest changes
Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News
Published May 18, 2006 at midnight
FasTracks planners faced with rising construction costs are already at work proposing cuts from the West Corridor light-rail project, the first new line that would be built under the $4.7 billion transit program.
As a result, the $508.2 million project is facing engineering and design changes that will move the end- of-line station at the Jefferson County Government complex, along with other proposed changes.
They include eliminating a tunnel on the Denver Federal Center, shortening the planned light-rail tunnel under the Sixth Avenue Freeway and shifting some of the track alignment at the U.S. 6-Colfax Avenue intersection.
Other proposals include modifying some station designs, eliminating a pedestrian tunnel at the Federal Boulevard Station, reviewing a pedestrian bridge to serve Red Rocks Community College and keeping the tracks on the south side of the freeway for a greater distance west.
The changes all will require public review and input.
Jefferson County commissioners, who wanted to move the end-of-line station anyway because it fits better with their master plan for the campus, already have approved the relocation.
Originally planned for the west side of the complex, the station will now be located on the southeast corner of the property at U.S. 6 and C-470, a shorter distance requiring less construction.
It would also have less parking than in the original plan.
The Regional Transportation District also is considering cuts to the service plan for the West Corridors after it opens in 2013, running fewer trains between the federal center and the Jefferson County complex.
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