DenverInfill Blog

Several major aspects of the project have to be completed before the new light rail and mall shuttle stations are operational. Still, we don’t have long to wait.

Streets need to be built for the mall shuttle. Chestnut Place will be rebuilt between 16th and 18th streets and over the top of the underground bus terminal.  A new section of 17th Street will be built over the top of the 16th Street side of the bus terminal between Chestnut Place and the new mall shuttle station. Finally, a connector street will be built across the front of the mall shuttle station to 16th Street at the base of the Millennium Bridge.   Those three streets along with the exiting end of 16th Street will form the new loop for the mall shuttle bus.  In the photo below, you can see early stages of rebuilding Chestnut Place.

Electrical work and track work need to be done for the light rail station to be ready for use. The Overhead Catenary System has to be completed.  The electrical sub-station, which is owned and operated by RTD, has to be moved from under the Millennium Bridge to the new concrete foundation immediately north of the Union Gateway Bridge.  And, of course, the new tracks have to be connected to the existing tracks next to new DaVita Building.

According to Jerry Nery, RTD’s DUS Project Manager, the target date for making the mall shuttle station and the light rail station operational is July 20, 2011. After that, the current shuttle and light rail stations will be demolished in preparation for the digging the second half of the underground bus terminal.

And, once Chestnut Place is finished, Wewatta Street will be closed between 16th Street and 18th or 19th Street, and traffic will be routed to Chestnut across the top of the bus terminal.

Most of the backfilling behind the bus terminal walls is now complete. Here’s a photo of the action last week on the 18th Street side of the terminal.

What’s missing in the first photo below?  I took the first photo on June 15, 2010, and the second on March 10, 2011.  Notice that the pile of dirt is significantly smaller. You can see most of Union Station to the left of the dirt pile in the second photo and almost all of the EPA Building to the right of the dirt pile in the same photo. Also, the dewatering system has been removed. The dirt, of course, was used for backfilling. The dewatering system is no longer needed now that the bus terminal is water-tight and the ground water level is seasonally low. You can see similar comparisons on our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com. Click on the Plan View tab and then select the icon of the view you want to see. I’ve posted as many as 33 photos from many of the sites over the past year. It’s interesting to see the progress in a relatively short time.

Work on the Overhead Catenary System (OCS) is continuing. As a reminder, the OCS is the electrical system that provides power to the light rail trains. I took the photo below from the Union Gateway Bridge (aka 18th Street Pedestrian Bridge). You can see workers attaching catenary apparatus to the tops of the poles. In my next post, I’ll share details about what needs to be accomplished for the new light rail and mall shuttle stations to be operational, and when it will be done.

In answer to OJ shakewell’s recent question, the third set of tracks at the new light rail station will be used mostly for staging trains during specials events such as Rockies games and St. Patrick’s Day parades.

Here is another comparison. These two photos of the entrance/exit ramp of the bus terminal were taken a week apart. The first one, which is a closer shot, shows green rebar and white tubes. The tubes will circulate heated glycol inside the concrete ramp to melt snow and ice for safe bus travel into and out of the terminal. A similar system is in operation at the Market Street Station. I took the second photo this morning. Concrete, which is covered with black plastic, was poured yesterday.

Please see our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com for more photos. Yesterday, I posted photos from last week and this week.  And, there will be more later this week.