I spent a couple of hours yesterday touring the Union Station work site thanks to Jerry Nery, RTD’s DUS Project Manager, and Hunter Sydnor, Kiewit’s Public Information Officer. The highlight of the tour was getting inside the bus terminal. This posting concentrates on that part of the tour. I have several other updates in various stages of development and editing. I will post them over the next few days so stay tuned for more news from inside the construction fence.

Here are close-ups of the entrance/exit ramp, one looking in, the other looking out. Buses will enter the terminal from this ramp near the freight tracks or from the ramp that has not yet been built behind Union Station. Buses will travel in a clockwise direction around the passenger waiting area which runs along the center of the terminal.

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One descriptive word came to mind when I walked in the terminal itself: huge! It’s possibly the largest single room that I have ever been in. And the other half isn’t even built yet. Airport concourses and convention halls may be as big or bigger, but this one really made an impression. The first photo below shows a long view of the facility. The second is me trying to give perspective on the size of the column next to me and the beams overhead.

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Here is a shot of the escalators and stairs that will take passengers between the bus terminal and the Chestnut Pavilion above. There will be one escalator and stairway going up and one of each going down. And there will be an elevator close behind them.

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Let there be light, lots of natural light. The first of the following photos is a long view of the passenger waiting area with bus travel lanes on both sides. The bright light in the center comes from the seven skylights above. The second photo is a side view of the middle skylight which is also the largest.

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Let’s move on to the mechanical rooms. First, here is a reminder of what they looked like under construction on December 18, 2010. The mechanical rooms are just above and parallel to the canopy at the new light rail station.

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Here are two photos of the inside. The mechanical rooms will house systems for air filtration, electrical, communications, etc.

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I will post my next update over the weekend with more information from my tour.

Please see our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com for more photos.