An RTD committee Monday gave early approval to a study aimed at locating a light-rail maintenance facility in an area of south-central Denver where residents four years ago successfully fought efforts to build a new city jail.
The Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks committee agreed to spend $1.6 million studying the placement of a new 70-acre maintenance operation in an area of the rail corridor bordered by West Colfax and West Alameda avenues on the north and south and Bannock Street and Interstate 25 on the east and west.
In November 2001, Denver voters rejected a proposal to build a new city jail near I-25 and West Sixth Avenue. Three months ago, voters approved a new jail site on West Colfax in downtown Denver only a few blocks from city hall.
Planners who have proposed construction of a rail maintenance facility north of downtown for diesel-powered FasTracks commuter trains already have encountered sizable opposition from neighborhood groups.
RTD is proposing an extensive study of possible sites for the new light-rail maintenance facility south of Colfax in part to get the full participation of neighborhoods in the selection process, said agency general manager Cal Marsella.
FasTracks is the agency’s $4.7 billion plan to build at least six new rail lines – and extensions for two other lines – over 12 years.
Also on Monday, RTD officials reviewed the potential for accelerating the FasTracks timetable.
Currently, the schedule calls for the first construction to start in late 2008 or early 2009 and for all lines to be completed by 2016.
At least four factors could help accelerate the process, Marsella said.
They include selling bonds early, getting more money from the federal government than expected, getting more money from local governments than expected and using new contracting methods that could speed construction.
Because of favorable interest rates, RTD is hoping to sell the first $500 million in FasTracks bonds by the end of this year – about two years earlier than planned.
But there’s a snag. A lawsuit brought by FasTracks opponents against backers of the transit plan is languishing in the Colorado Court of Appeals.
As long as the matter is unresolved in the courts, RTD cannot sell the bonds, Marsella said.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-820-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
