Balfour Beatty Infrastructure has won a US$140m (£90m) two-phased contract to design and build the Southeast Rail Extension in the US city of Denver.
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The decision to award the contract was taken during this week’s meeting of the board of directors of Denver’s Regional Transportation District.
The Balfour Beatty team also includes Parsons Brinckerhoff, Capitol Management, Transit Safety & Security Solutions, Systems Consulting and Communication Infrastructure Group. The team’s proposal was described as offering the best value.
Design will begin during the autumn with construction expected to start in spring 2016. The construction phase is dependent on award of a full funding grant agreement from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).
The Southeast Rail Extension will build an additional 2.3 miles of light rail on the existing Southeast Rail Line south of Lincoln. When the extension is complete it will include an end-of-line station at RidgeGate Parkway, plus additional facilities for parking, bus transfers and ‘kiss-n-ride’. In addition, two more stations will be added.
The current projected budget for the entire Southeast Rail Extension project is US$233.1m, including   environmental analysis, preliminary engineering and design and the acquisition of eight light rail vehicles.
The remaining US$198.7m will be financed through a combination of federal, private and local funds. Half of the project will be funded by the FTA’s New Starts program, which supplies major capital grants to metropolitan areas; plus a sizable local match of 14 percent from private businesses and local governments in the southeast metro area; and 36 percent from RTD through local funding sources. The project has already been accepted into FTA’s New Start’s engineering phase and is included in President Obama’s FY 2016 budget.