Brighton – Relocation of major Union Pacific Railroad operations from central Denver to the Brighton-Fort Lupton area could generate an $8 billion economic boost to the region over the next 10 years, officials said Tuesday.
The Regional Transportation District needs two Union Pacific yards near the Denver Coliseum for its FasTracks rail expansion and has pledged to relocate them in a move that is expected to cost RTD more than $100 million.
UP officials have identified a swatch of land – nearly 3 miles long and a third of a mile wide – between Brighton and Fort Lupton as the preferred location for a new intermodal, bulk-commodity loading and switching center.
Some local residents are fighting the move.
The railroad hired economist Patricia Silverstein to examine the economic impacts on the area if the rail facilities are relocated.
On Tuesday, Silverstein, of Development Research Partners, revealed results of her study to local officials at a meeting sponsored by Brighton Economic Development Inc.
Among her findings:
“This is very exciting data,” Fort Lupton city administrator Jim Sidebottom said after Silverstein’s presentation.
“It would almost double our city,” he added, referring to projections on job and housing growth for Fort Lupton.
Still, Sidebottom and other officials said they’re awaiting results of a second, larger Union Pacific study – one that will examine environmental impacts of moving the UP yards to the area and identify the total cost of making the move.
That study, which will look at projected truck traffic and air- quality, water-quality and noise impacts, should be completed in November, said senior UP official Richard Hartman, who presented the railroad’s case at Tuesday’s meeting.
Union Pacific is only considering the move at the request of RTD, Hartman said. If the cost of relocating the yards ends up being too much for RTD, “we’ll stay where we are,” he added.
That would be a fine outcome for Bob Oman, who with his wife, Ellen, runs an 85-acre horse, cattle and haying operation on Weld County Road 6, just east of the proposed UP facility.
“We planned on being here for the rest of our life,” Oman said.
Yet if the rail complex is built, “we’d be gone in a New York second,” he added.
“They haul every kind of hazardous material known to mankind,” Oman said. “The environmental impacts will be devastating.”
A website started by opponents of the rail relocation,, lists Union Pacific-linked Superfund cleanup sites and asks, “Do we want a future Superfund site in Fort Lupton?”
From its construction of other major railyards, UP has learned how to minimize environmental impacts, Hartman said.
“It is in our best interest for employees, customers and the public to make sure all these environmental concerns are taken into account,” he said.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
THE PLAN
Source: Patricia Silverstein, Development Research Partners
Public input
At issue: Union Pacific will hold community meetings.
When: 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.
Sites: Monday, Adams County Regional Park Complex, 9755 Henderson Road in Brighton; Tuesday, Fort Lupton Community Center, 203 S. Harrison Ave.
