Denver Light Rail Construction pictures

[C2H]

Here are some pics i found of the construction going on in Denver's Light rail T-Rex Project. It is very massive. As i said before, i think a similar concept could work in Houston alongside Katy and Gulf Freeways, or maybe around the entire 610 loop. Tell me what you think.

Alongside I-25 and Yale (Feb 2006)

University and Buchtel (Feb 2006)

I-25 through the Narrows (Feb 2006)-

(take note how the LRT lane is constructed- look all the way to the left side of freeway)

Hampden Interchange (Feb 2006)

I-25 and Evans (Feb 2006)

Colorado Blvd Interchange (Feb 2006)

For more information- here's the website link:

http://www.trexproject.com/

Edited April 18, 2006 by C2H

[editor]

There looks like plenty of room on that rail right-of-way to expand to full-fledged commuter rail, should the need arise.

There was an interesting piece on one of the network evening newscasts a couple of weeks ago. I-70 or I-80 (I forget which) in Colorado is absolutely maxed, so there are two proposals for relieving the problem.

1: Spend a billion and a half dollars building a tunnel through some mountain.

2: Spend even more on a rail system.

According to the piece, nearly everyone favors the rail. Even the half-dozen or so people sitting high in their SUV's in stopped traffic on the interstate. They all desperately wanted rail.

I've alway thought of Denver as the Seattle-of-the-Mountains, and of Seattle as a moister version of San Francisco. This would seem to go along with that notion.

[Blender]

There looks like plenty of room on that rail right-of-way to expand to full-fledged commuter rail, should the need arise.

There was an interesting piece on one of the network evening newscasts a couple of weeks ago. I-70 or I-80 (I forget which) in Colorado is absolutely maxed, so there are two proposals for relieving the problem.

1: Spend a billion and a half dollars building a tunnel through some mountain.

2: Spend even more on a rail system.

According to the piece, nearly everyone favors the rail. Even the half-dozen or so people sitting high in their SUV's in stopped traffic on the interstate. They all desperately wanted rail.

I've alway thought of Denver as the Seattle-of-the-Mountains, and of Seattle as a moister version of San Francisco. This would seem to go along with that notion.

I live in Denver and have sat in traffic on I-70 more times than I care to think about. I-70 is the only direct East-West route through the state. Traffic on Sunday night is bad year-round from people coming back to Denver from Utah, skiing, camping, etc.

The problem was really bad this ski season because of the amount of snowfall we received. When there is a lot of snow, they have to close Loveland pass and send the haz-mat trucks through the Eisehnower tunnel. For those of you who have never been here, the Eisenhower tunnel is a very long tunnel that goes through the Continental divide. Loveland pass goes up and over the divide. Understandably, they cannot send cars in with the haz-mat trucks, so they stop traffic every hour to let the trucks go through. This backs up traffic for miles. We've sat in traffic for 4 hours to go about 5 miles.

The two ideas on the table are to add an additional lane to I-70 or add a rail system. It seems obvious to me that adding a rail system would be the best option even if it cost 10 times more than adding a lane.

An additional lane would (possibly) ease traffic problems for only a limited amount of time. How long would it be before we need another lane? And it's not like you can just keep adding lanes. The highway runs through the mountains and there's only so much room to expand. Not to mention the cost of widening the Eisenhower tunnel each time. A rail system wouldn't need to stop to let haz mat trucks through or close because of bad weather. And it's the ethical thing to do to reduce pollution through some of the prettiest terrain the world has to offer. Yes - there is the issue of transportation once you get up there, but I'm sure we can figure something out. Some ski towns already offer a free bus service to and from the resorts.

I hope the powers at be make the right decision.

[editor]

Thanks for the additional detail. My memory of the program was fuzzy.

Do you have a sense that the traffic pressure is pushing sprawl eastward toward Kansas, or north toward Cheyenne?

[VelvetJ]

The two ideas on the table are to add an additional lane to I-70 or add a rail system. It seems obvious to me that adding a rail system would be the best option even if it cost 10 times more than adding a lane.

An additional lane would (possibly) ease traffic problems for only a limited amount of time. How long would it be before we need another lane? And it's not like you can just keep adding lanes. The highway runs through the mountains and there's only so much room to expand. Not to mention the cost of widening the Eisenhower tunnel each time. A rail system wouldn't need to stop to let haz mat trucks through or close because of bad weather. And it's the ethical thing to do to reduce pollution through some of the prettiest terrain the world has to offer. Yes - there is the issue of transportation once you get up there, but I'm sure we can figure something out. Some ski towns already offer a free bus service to and from the resorts.

I hope the powers at be make the right decision.

I'm sorry to be pissy but I am in a funky mood today. The above statement is exactly the type of mentality that Houston as a whole seems to be missing. Suck it up and do what we all know is best for the city as a whole. Making cost the priority of every project will only come back to bite us.

[The Great Hizzy!]

The problem with the Denver alignment shown is similar to what will be the problem with Houston's E-W alignment if we try to run it along Westpark for too great a distance. The nearby points of interest are difficult to get to once you leave the rail stop. In this case, at least there is a decent number of residential that's within 10-15 minute walking distance, but still... ridership will be compromised to a certain degree. Imagine having to try to cross the freeway to get to where you want to go on the other side.

That said, the reconstruction of I-25 went well, it seems. I like the touches added to the overpasses with the street names and the like.

Will the overpasses along the SW freeway eventually have the street names added back as they were prior to the trench's construction?

[CE_ugh]

How close to the resorts do the Rio Grande rail lines go?

[HoustonianInColorado]

One thing this alignment does is connect downtown Denver to the Denver Tech Center, where many of the areas jobs are. In the rush hours, I-25 is pretty busy both directions. A Houston analog to this might be connecting Downtown to Greenway or Uptown.

There is more to the light rail expansion here than the I-25 piece. If you Google up a map of Denver you can follow along. The current rail runs from north of Downtown, and along Santa Fe Drive (US 85) south to the town of Littleton. The new route connects to this downtown and follows I-25 to County Line Road (Park Meadows Mall / Douglas-Arapahoe County Line), with a branch that will go up I-225 from I-25 up to (I think) Parker Road (Colorado 83).

Edited April 20, 2006 by HoustonianInColorado

[Blender]

In addition to the T-Rex project, Denver also has plans to turn the historic Union Station building downtown into a transportation hub. You can read more about the plan here: http://www.denverunionstation.org/master_plan/