As many as 100 employees of an Owens Corning roofing shingle factory joined with their families and company suppliers to pack a north Denver rec center gymnasium Thursday night and express concern that RTD’s plan to locate a commuter-rail maintenance facility on their plant site threatens their jobs and future.
The Regional Transportation District wants to build a $200 million maintenance center for about 100 commuter rail cars that will be acquired for the FasTracks rail expansion. The agency said its “preferred” location for the maintenance facility, which will employ about 300 people, is Owens Corning’s 14-acre site at 5201 Fox St. near the Mousetrap, where Interstates 25 and 70 intersect.
RTD officials say they are obligated by federal law to pay Owens Corning “fair market value” for the site and help relocate the manufacturing operation.
Owens Corning executives say if the company is not made “whole” by RTD in an acquisition, it may have to shutter the plant. “It will cost close to $80 million to move” the operation and take three years, Owens Corning vice president Mike Burton told RTD officials at the public meeting.
