RTD considers former Post plant for new bus maintenance facility

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Already pinched by a tight schedule, RTD’s FasTracks program has to fit in an unexpected project – a new bus maintenance facility – and is eyeing the former Denver Post printing plant for it.

The 44-acre property at the intersection of Interstates 25 and 70 was vacated in September after the Denver Newspaper Agency consolidated printing operations at its plant in Adams County. It was acquired by Ascendant Capital Partners in February for $17.1 million.

RTD is in a bind to replace the 300-bus Platte Division at 31st Street and Ringsby Court, which became the site for FasTracks’ commuter rail maintenance facility this year.

While the $6.1 billion program always included a new 150-bus facility to accommodate expanded service, it wasn’t scheduled until after 2017. That one still is needed, and RTD is looking at two sites for it, both in Adams County.

The commuter rail yard initially was planned for Union Pacific Railroad’s 36th Street Yard. That fell through when RTD and UP couldn’t agree on a price for an assortment of railroad property that RTD wanted.

RTD then selected a site it already owned – the Platte Division. But the rail facility is so large that there will be no room left to keep the buses there.

The time problem for FasTracks is that the rail facility must open by mid-2013 to accommodate the scheduled start of rail transit to Denver International Airport and Arvada- Wheat Ridge, but work cannot start on it until RTD builds a replacement for the bus facility.

The 22.5-acre Platte Division houses all of the 16th Street Mall shuttles as well as regional and express buses for numerous RTD routes. RTD estimates it can build the new bus facility within its $74.9 million budget.

Dave Hollis, FasTracks project manager, told the RTD board Tuesday night that 25 sites were considered. Most were eliminated because of their distance from the mall. The alternative-fueled shuttles have a maximum cruising range of three miles.

Other sites were eliminated because of zoning conflicts. Ironically, that includes a site near Colfax Avenue on Quail Street in Lakewood that RTD acquired by eminent domain in 1980 specifically to build a bus maintenance facility on the west side of town. RTD never built it, however, and leased it out as a junkyard instead. It was recently rezoned for office and research facility development.

flynnk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5247