With much fanfare, the group of community representative and transportation officials that have been evaluating options for transit, road and bike improvements inthe US 36 corridor, the Preferred Alternative Committee (PAC), agreed on a package to take through the Final Environmental Impact Analysis (FEIS) process.  The agreement, known as the US 36 Combined Alternative Recommendation, was memorialized two weeks ago in a formal signing ceremony which featured speeches by RTD General Manager Cal Marsella and CDOT Director Russ George, as well as individual statements from each of the signing PAC members.   Everyone applauded the collaborative spirit that characterized the PAC’s work together and they all pledged to try to move the improvements along as quickly as possible.

Why all the hoopla?  Well, the final package of proposed improvements truly represented a negotiated compromise amongst the participants.  Each community came to the table with different priorities and infrastructure goals.   After years of evaluation and wrangling, it became clear in recent months that the funding was not available to fully meet the different vision that each community had for the corridor.  Instead, recognizing the limited resources available for the project and in the interest of “digging dirt” as soon as feasibly possible, the parties came together around a package of transit, roadway and bikeway improvements that best satisfied the region’s transportation needs within available resource constraints.

I will not detail all of the recommended improvements, as they are explained in the attached document.  Most critical, from RTD’s perspective, is the agreement to build an HOV lane all the way from Boulder to Denver to support the bus rapid transit system (BRT).  It was determined that, at vastly reduced cost and with a minimal travel time penalty, the best path forward is to incorporate side-loading stations (v. the original vision of median stations).  The BRT system also will be supported by such features as queue jump lanes at intersections along the corridor, special stylized buses, and enhancement to key bus stops in Boulder.

The RTD Board accepted the US 36 Combine Alternative Recommendation at its July Board meeting.  The final FEIS steps will now proceed toward a final Record of Decision.  This is a significant milestone toward implementing the mobility improvements for the US 36 corridor that were promised in the FasTracks program.

US 36 Combined Alternative Recommendation