RTD appears ready to offer a compromise that would allow it to build a $200 million commuter rail maintenance facility in the north metro area and leave a nearby Owens Corning roofing shingle plant intact.
In recent months, the Regional Transportation District told Owens Corning officials that the transit agency might have to acquire the shingle plant for the rail maintenance operation — an option that would have forced the company to relocate or close the factory.
On Tuesday night, RTD planners briefed the agency’s board of directors in closed session on a new proposal that would have RTD acquiring some of Owens Corning’s storage yard for future FasTracks rail service, but not require taking over the factory itself.
The rail maintenance center will serve four FasTracks commuter rail lines that RTD intends to build, including the line to Denver International Airport.
“I’m optimistic that Owens Corning would view this as far less of an impact to their operations,” said Greg Straight, RTD’s engineering project manager for the rail maintenance facility, following the briefing.
“We feel we may be going in a direction that would allow us to co-exist on the site,” Straight added. “Our goal is to leave the building intact.”
On Wednesday, RTD officials will formally brief Owens Corning on the new proposal.
The company has estimated it would cost at least $80 million to relocate to a new plant. RTD disputes that figure, but avoiding the closure of the factory would save RTD tens of millions of dollars that it likely would have to pay Owens Corning to vacate the site.
After Tuesday’s board meeting, Owens Corning plant manager Bill Shockley said local company officials will have to forward RTD’s proposal to the firm’s headquarters in Toledo, Ohio, for assessment.
Owens Corning has waged a vigorous public relations campaign to prevent RTD from taking the plant by eminent domain and forcing a possible move or shutdown.
The company said 100 jobs are at stake as are a similar number of workers at other local companies that supply the shingle-manufacturing operation. Owens Corning serves a seven-state area with the factory.
The factory is at 52nd Avenue and Fox Street in Adams County, just over the Denver-Adams boundary.
Many local officials in Adams County have expressed concern that RTD’s earlier threat to possibly acquire the entire Owens Corning site might lead to the loss of manufacturing jobs at a time Colorado can ill-afford to lose any jobs.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, RTD General Manager Cal Marsella said officials from Denver and the state also have been concerned about the transit agency’s plans and Owens Corning’s future in the area.
Senior RTD executive Phil Washington, who will take over as interim general manager of the agency when Marsella leaves his post next month, said RTD officials will meet on Wednesday with newly named Colorado chief operating officer Don Elliman, who has been the state’s economic development chief, and Kelly Brough, Mayor John Hickenlooper’s chief of staff, to discuss the Owens Corning matter.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
