Recovering from recession, rising costs and reorganization, Denver's FasTracks is heading into a milestone year. Officials with Denver's Regional Transportation District (RTD) anticipate the debut of more than 40 miles of new commuter-rail service and 10.5 miles of new light-rail service as part of its $5.5-billion, 122-mile program. The progress is the fruit of strengthened alliances with neighborhoods, developers, other transportation agencies and the contracting industry—including the nation's first transit-related public-private partnership.
Perhaps the most iconic symbol of the FasTracks program, which voters approved in 2004, is Denver's downtown Union Station. The $500-million effort to transform the mostly unused historic train station into a gleaming multimodal transportation and retail hub, completed last year, already has resulted in a boom of real estate development. High-rise residential and office buildings are swiftly growing up around it. A new boutique hotel, trendy restaurants and shops inside the station appeared to be doing brisk business when ENR reporters visited Denver in May as part of its "Low & Slow Across America's Infrastructure" tour.