RTD’s board of directors on Tuesday night approved 21 projects that will receive about $72 million in federal transit funding from the economic-stimulus measure passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama.
The list includes $9.8 million for the redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station as a hub for RTD’s FasTracks program. The Denver Regional Council of Governments is contributing another $18.6 million in stimulus money for the station overhaul.
Other RTD projects that will be funded with stimulus money include:
• $17.1 million in new computerized pass-reading fare boxes for the agency’s fleet of more than 1,000 buses.
• $10.2 million for bus and rail vehicle maintenance.
• $7.6 million for special bus lanes on ramps to U.S. 36 that will allow buses to avoid getting slowed by crowded ramp traffic at rush hour.
• $5 million for “intrusion barriers” on the Southwest Corridor light-rail line that will alert RTD if a freight train derails on nearby parallel tracks and spills into RTD’s right of way.
