RTD’s planned light-rail line from Denver to Golden won $60 million in federal funding Tuesday as part of what is expected to be a long-term federal commitment to the FasTracks project.
Federal transit officials made the fiscal 2009 award to the Regional Transportation District’s West Corridor line and said RTD is likely to receive at least $290.6 million in federal funding for the project over several years.
The RTD line, set for completion in late 2012, is one of only two new rail lines in the nation in position to get Federal Transit Administration comprehensive funding agreements this year, FTA officials said.
A $1.8 billion light-rail extension in Seattle is the other project in line for a comprehensive grant, federal officials said. That project will receive $100 million for fiscal 2009.
The comprehensive grants are coveted long-term commitments by the federal government to cover a significant percentage of the cost of major transit projects.
FTA officials on Tuesday also announced 2009 grants totaling about $200 million for 13 smaller transit projects around the country, including the Mason Corridor bus rapid transit project in Fort Collins.
The city will get $11.2 million from the FTA in the coming year — part of an expected $59 million in federal funds — for the high-frequency bus line.
Total cost of the Fort Collins bus project is $74 million. State and local money will make up the balance.
The price tag for RTD’s 12.1-mile West Corridor rail line, which will run from central Denver to the Jefferson County Government Center, has jumped to $635 million from an estimated $508 million in 2004, in part because of a rise in construction costs, according to RTD.
FTA Deputy Administrator Sherry Little said her agency is aware of “cost escalation” in the West Corridor light-rail budget and that it is monitoring RTD’s cost-containment efforts.
The FTA is conducting is own “risk assessment” of the RTD project, she said.
RTD hoped for more
RTD officials had hoped to get at least $87 million this year from the FTA instead of the $60 million announced Tuesday.
The FTA said its payment to RTD may increase after the federal agency’s current review of the project.
For its transit project, Fort Collins plans to build a 5-mile right of way in which buses will offer high-frequency service — largely in dedicated lanes — linking the city’s downtown with major university, retail and commercial locations to the south in the College Avenue-Mason Street corridor.
Little said the FTA’s commitment to Fort Collins is expected to cover 80 percent of the cost of the Mason bus line.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
