Biggest obstacle to Highlands Ranch light rail is cost
This simulated view looking west over C-470 toward Santa Fe Drive shows RTD's Southwest Corridor Extension curving into Highlands Ranch from Mineral Station. The station in the picture is a future intermediate stop before Lucent Boulevard.
RTD’s FasTracks plan to build an extension to the Littleton light rail line faces few environmental hurdles along the 2.5-mile route from Mineral Avenue to Lucent Boulevard in Highlands Ranch.
The biggest hurdle it faces is being at the end of the line for funding from the overall FasTracks budget, which has a $2.2 billion shortfall trying to pay for $6.9 billion worth of work by 2017.
The Southwest Corridor Extension is currently priced at $165.6 million. Only the Central Corridor light rail extension from Five Points to a transfer station for the proposed line to DIA is estimated at less cost.
The Southwest extension’s most expensive element is a large, curving flyover bridge to take the double-tracked extension over the top of the complex C-470/Santa Fe Drive interchange where two freight railroad bridges and a proposed highway ramp by the Colorado Department of Transportation also compete for space.
Read the full story at Kevin Flynn’s Inside Lane.
Longtime journalist Kevin Flynn was the transportation beat writer for the Rocky Mountain News.
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