Elati Opens, T-REX Light Rail Vehicles Start Testing

The new Elati Light Rail Maintenance Facility began operations on Jan. 2.

The 125,000-sq-ft, state-of-the-art facility is where all of the Regional Transportation District's light rail fleet will be cleaned, maintained and inspected, including the 34 new vehicles being added to the system through T-REX. Heavy repairs will still take place at the existing Mariposa Light Rail Maintenance Facility.

Also, light rail vehicles began testing on part of the T-REX project in late December.

Through March, empty light rail vehicles will run intermittently on the tracks from Broadway to Steele to test various elements of the new system. The track, signals, substations and Overhead Contact System are among the systems that the design-build contractor, Southeast Corridor Constructors, is testing to ensure that the elements are all working together properly.

After the integrated testing is complete next month, RTD will begin using the same rail segment to test 34 new light rail cars being provided through T-REX. Each new vehicle must operate successfully for 1,500 miles before being put into service.

Periodically for the next two years, empty light rail vehicles will be running in the segment from Broadway to Steele.

T-REX construction is on schedule for completion in September 2006. The Southeast Corridor Light Rail is on track to open to the public in December 2006.

Major Milestones Expected for T-REX in 2005

T-REX is set to hit a number of other major milestones this year, including:

• The start of construction on the Lincoln parking garage;
• Completion of the Arapahoe parking garage and the start of its use as a new park-n-Ride;
• The opening of a highway segment of Interstate 225 in its final configuration;
• Completion of the Hampden Avenue Bridge reconstruction;
• Completion of the Colorado Boulevard Bridge reconstruction;
• The opening of additional lanes in the Narrows section of Interstate 25; and
• Completion of the final configuration of the I-25/I-225 interchange.

Some of T-REX's major accomplishments in 2004 included widening I-25 to five lanes in each direction from Belleview Avenue to County Line Road; opening three lanes of traffic in each direction on I-225 from Yosemite Street to Parker Road; opening the Evans on-ramp to southbound I-25 and northbound off-ramp at Evans; opening the tunnel for traffic traveling from southbound I-225 to southbound I-25; and completion of the Elati Light Rail Maintenance Facility.

CDOT Covers Experimental Pavement on I-70

CDOT covered a section of experimental asphalt pavement on westbound I-70 in December due to safety concerns. The pavement will be permanently removed and replaced next spring.

As part of its ongoing testing of new products, CDOT installed a 2,000-ft-long experimental section of new asphalt pavement on westbound I-70 between the Buffalo Herd Overlook and Chief Hosa exits.

The pavement - known as open-graded friction course - has been used in some European countries and shown to have noise-mitigating qualities.

However, due to weather and roadway characteristics in the area - such as inclines and curves - the pavement instead resulted in reduced skid resistance and increased accident potential.

The cost to install the test pavement was $52,000. The expected cost to cover and ultimately replace the OGFC is between $40,000 and $50,000.

Contractor Repairs Damage Caused by Massive I-70 Rockfall

The Colorado Department of Transportation and contractor Kiewit Western Co. of Littleton repaired the damage caused by the Thanksgiving rockslide on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon, working through late January to fix the slide zone - an area just west of the Hanging Lakes Tunnel.

The $1 million project included repairing eight damaged sections of bridge deck in the eastbound lanes and roadway damage on the westbound lanes. It required significant removal and replacement of asphalt pavement.

Engineering Design Change Proposed for Lowry Landfill

The City and County of Denver and Waste Management of Colorado Inc. have asked the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to review an engineering design and operations plan that would increase the slope of the cover on Section 6 of the Lowry Landfill Superfund Site.

The change was requested to improve surface water drainage and prevent water penetration or accumulation at the site, located at 2500 S. Gun Club Rd. in Aurora.

Lowry Landfill - also known as the Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site - is not the location currently used for waste disposal nor is it associated with the former Lowry AFB. in Denver and Aurora.

The plan proposes to increase the slope of the four-ft-thick cover on the existing landfill in order to improve surface water drainage and prevent water penetration or accumulation on the cover.

Under this proposal, the slope of the landfill cover would be increased to roughly five percent by removing and stockpiling two ft of the existing cover and by then placing an additional 5.6 million cu yds of inert material and construction and demolition debris on top of the landfill.

The cover then would be replaced and reconstructed.

No municipal solid waste disposal is proposed and only limited industrial waste would be accepted and approved for disposal on a case-by-case basis. The disposal of inert materials - limited to construction materials such as masonry, concrete, brick and rock - could continue for seven to 14 years, if approved.

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