RTD has won a federal grant of $5.2 million to purchase eight new buses for the 16th Street Mall shuttle.
Federal Transit Administration officials Thursday announced $293 million in bus and “urban circulator” grants nationwide, and the Regional Transportation District was one of three Colorado recipients of the transit funds.
The federal agency said it will also award about $160,000 for a bus project in Montrose and $152,500 for a transit center in Trinidad that will offer connections to Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train as well as Greyhound and other intercity bus operations.
RTD had applied for federal money for other projects, including $8.8 million for a downtown Denver bus circulator, at least $5.8 million for new intercity buses for the U.S. 36 corridor and $785,000 for a planned transit center in Boulder.
The agency was not successful with those bids.
RTD was seeking money from a transit administration pool for bus projects that totaled only $163 million nationally, so RTD was pleased with its $5.2 million award, said transit planning coordinator Bill Sirois.
“We’re really happy we got this amount, and we’re hoping to get more,” Sirois said, adding that RTD also has submitted at least seven applications for a new round of federal transit funding.
One of those is a bid for $49.6 million to pay for 80 percent of the expected $62 million cost of reconstructing and extending the 16th Street Mall — a project that is being led by the Downtown Denver Partnership.
RTD expects to learn in September whether the mall reconstruction project will get the money, Sirois said.
If it succeeds, then RTD, Denver, the downtown Denver Business Improvement District and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority would be expected to provide $12.4 million in local funds to complete the project, according to RTD’s application for the federal money.
As part of the planned reconstruction, the Downtown Denver Partnership is considering a number of possible design changes for the mall, including widening sidewalks and altering the bus right of way.
Planned improvements include rehabilitating the mall’s granite pavers, upgrading utilities and landscaping, and making intersection and cross-street upgrades that will give the disabled better access to the mall, officials say.
The free mall shuttle ferries about 50,000 passengers each weekday.
In addition to the $163 million in federal bus grants announced Thursday, the federal agency gave $130 million in “urban circulator” grants, many of which back new streetcar projects across the country.
St. Louis, Cincinnati, Charlotte, N.C., and Fort Worth, Texas, were granted $25 million each for streetcar projects.
Denver has sponsored a feasibility study to consider returning streetcars to East Colfax Avenue. Officials say it is possible that the local streetcar project will bid for future federal urban circulator funds.
A double-track streetcar line on Colfax between the State Capitol and Colorado Boulevard could cost as much as $70 million.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
