Very, very exciting news from RTD! Last night, the RTD Board of Directors heard from a recommendation from RTD staff to approve a proposal from a partnership between Graham, Balfour Beatty, and Hamon Constructors (known as GBBH) to design and build the North Metro Rail Line all the way to 124th Avenue by January 2018!
RTD received an unsolicited proposal from GBBH this past February and determined that it was worthy of moving forward to a competitive procurement process (as is required). After issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) this summer, RTD received four competitive proposals – one from GBBH, one from a Bechtel/Herzog joint venture, one from a Kiewit/Stacy and Witbeck joint venture, and one from URS Energy and Construction.
The GBBH proposal included the full build-out of the North Metro Line to 162nd Avenue, but RTD staff recommended that the first phase of the project be built to 124th Avenue. This recommendation was made for two reasons. The first is a realization of cost – Phase 1 will cost $343 million, which RTD will finance by issuing Certificates of Participation (COPs). This ensures that the first phase is affordable for RTD, given it’s current borrowing capabilities and other obligations. Secondly, building to 124th Avenue serves a majority of the projected riders on the corridor. RTD can exercise an option with GBBH to complete the line to 162nd Avenue if/when money becomes available.
Additionally, GBBH has proposed options to complete the three extension projects – the Central Rail Line , Southwest Rail Line , and Southeast Rail Line Extensions – in addition to build an extension from 162nd Avenue north to Longmont, as well as extend the Northwest Rail Line from 71st & Lowell north to 88th & Harlan. RTD will need to identify and secure additional funding before exercising any of these options proposed by GBBH. However, it is exciting that these options are at least possibilities.
Obviously, all of this is contingent on the RTD Board of Directors agreeing with RTD staff and moving forward with this proposal by GBBH. The public will have the chance to issue comments to the Board at a FasTracks Monitoring Committee meeting on November 14 (next Thursday) and at the November 26 RTD Board Meeting. The Board is expected to take formal action on a potential contract award at that meeting later this month.
RTD has asked the private sector for solutions to help push for completion of unfunded FasTracks projects, which started in 2011 with the Transformation through Transportation industry forum. This unsolicited proposal was a direct result of that process.
VERY exciting development from RTD which helps move FasTracks one (very large) step closer to completion!
This is just absolutely great news to this North Metro resident. I’m so happy to hear this; i’d heard on 9News that this had happened, but was unaware the buildout would be so far to the north. Is there a feeling for how the Board of Directors would respond to the recommendation? It seems like a slam dunk, but you never know with politics and funding and such…
Here’s hoping this works and goes through quickly.
I’d particularly like to see the southern end built ASAP just so that things can settle down in the Union Station area… I wonder if there is any hope of building North Metro with zero disruption to Amtrak or the services which will be operating in 2016, by getting the most southern-end part done early.
I hope that the Central Rail Extension option can be taken up quickly as well, for similar reasons (build the 38th & Blake station all at once rather than in two pieces).
Perhaps sales tax revenues and ticket revenue will be better than expected — we can hope!
Then RTD can sit down and focus on creative ways to get Northwest Rail to Boulder. There’s gotta be a way.
And the contract has been approved.
Ryan… Thanks for the update and great news; I had lost track of where this was at.
Instead of separate political interests trying to grab a preferred share, like the recent education funding proposal, if they had cooperatively divided the new tax revenue among education and CDOT – transportation, it would have passed easily, most likely. The metro area, RTD district could have provided two-thirds for CDOT to one-third for transit, for example. Oh well, live and learn.
Any update on the W Line ridership numbers? I would hope they’re decent, which could be used to help pass any additional tax for the NW line…
Is there any clarification at this poinht whether the GBBH is single or doubled tracked?
Is there a map that shows more precise roads that the rail will follow so one can track it by driving?