RTD has officially broken ground on the East Corridor with service between Denver Union Station and DIA!!
The groundbreaking ceremony was held this morning just south of the main terminal (at the site of the future south terminal and DIA rail station) and was very well attended. Dignitaries in attendance included Senator Mark Udall, Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, RTD General Manager Phil Washington, as well as a few RTD Board members. Everyone said a few (some more than others) kind words about the project, the process, as well as touted the potential and expectation that the train will forever transform how visitors and residents alike move around our great city.
The East Corridor will cost about $1 billion , the most expensive (but not the longest) in the FasTracks network. Construction activities such as utility relocations will be occurring over the next few months along the corridor with major construction activities getting underway about this time next year. The corridor will be open for service in early 2016. As mentioned in an earlier post, the project is expected to create about 5,000 jobs (directly and indirectly) during the height of construction in 2012-2013.
RTD and DTP had a pretty cool setup to avoid the awkward and cliché “golden shovel” routine at groundbreakings—they had 6 backhoes lined up behind and around the main stage to officially kick off construction. That made for a very cool background and photo opportunity as well!
It’s great to see more progress on FasTracks—especially to see the corridor that most people talk about finally get underway. Plans for a train between DIA and downtown were drawn up along with the airport 15-20 years ago—better late than never!
Where will the groundbreaking take place?
finally. 15 years late but better now than never! can’t wait to take the train to the airport like a civilized human being.
This is so awesome! I’m excited to see this in progress!
The groundbreaking will be on the lawn just south of the Jeppesen Terminal – where the new DIA station will be.
I’m a little bit confused. I’ve read somewhere that the East Corridor and the DIA expansion will be ready sometime in 2013. During the groundbreaking, they mentioned 6 years. So just to be sure… is 6 years from now the entire Eagle project? Or will DIA – Downtown be ready in around 3 years?
Thanks.
The DIA hotel (a Westin last I heard) should be done in 2013. The West Corridor and Denver Union Station projects should be done in 2013. The East Corridor will be done in 2016 as will the Gold Line and the Northwest Rail Electrified Segment to South Westminster.
2016? Sigh. For reference, the transcontinental railroad (Omaha to San Francisco) was built in 6 years. That’s 1800 miles, crossing the Rockies, and done almost entirely with manual labor. I know, things are different now.
Things are much different now, not just a little, to the point that the two are incomparable. You are comparing a construction project from 150 years ago (a project that used Chinese and Irish laborers) that crossed open lands without man-made obstacles, that basically only needed grading to be completed. Now, this project has to go through industrial, commercial, and residential areas, all with their own problems and tasks (land ROW, utility line restructuring, etc). It also has to have electrical systems installed for the EMUs, bridgework completed to accommodate for overhead wiring, highway adjustments (mostly can only be done at night or on the weekends), and noise mitigation. They also need to build stations, parking lots, access roads, and the station/hotel add-on to Jeppesen Terminal.
Six years still seems like a long time… Especially for something that should have been done 10 years ago.
Afraid I have to agree with Brendan and Scott. The I-25 widening and light-rail line (TREX ?) was at least as complicated (including all the issues Rex mentioned), cost more, and was done under budget in about 3 years while traffic still moved reasonably well. This is primarily about leadership and motivation. Recall that Governor Owens put his foot down ahead of time and insisted on cost control and timely construction. The only other issue that might be impacting this project is the timing of funding, but since the project includes a 40 year operating agreement, I assure you that the future operator is willing to do anything necessary to complete the project and begin generating revenue as soon as possible. I assure you they are not the hold up. The West line has done a lot of work this year. At this pace, it really should be ready in a year or maybe early 2012. Why do we have to wait till 2013 to use this line? This smells of bureaucratic inefficiency. Let’s getr’ done!! Let’s quit calling things complicated and get to work!
Oh, but those are not mere “backhoes!” Backhoes are the rubber-tire machines with a loading bucket in front, and a small excavating bucket in back…hence “back” -hoe. The photo shows more specialized, comparitively fancy tracked-excavators, or as most dirt people say, “trackhoes.”
HUGE DIFFERENCE! omg.