Preferred Station Locations Identified

At its Local Governments Team meeting yesterday, the Gold Line Team also recommended preferred station locations for the 38th Avenue and Pecos stations. The Gold Line Team will gather public input on these recommendations during their Station Access and Design Issue Focused Team meetings that will occur in the coming weeks. Preferred station locations had already been selected for the other Gold Line stations, which are located at Federal, Sheridan, Olde Town, Arvada Ridge and Ward Road.

38th Avenue Station
The Gold Line Team is recommending the 41st Avenue East Option (located at 41st and Fox) for the 38th Avenue Station.  Three station options were considered for the 38th Avenue Station: the Railroad Route Option, the 39th Avenue East Option and the 41st Avenue East Option. The Railroad Route Option was eliminated since it has been determined that the Gold Line will not run within the railroad right of way in this area. In considering the 41st and 39th options, a number of factors led to the recommendation of selecting the 41st location. Unlike the 39th option, 41st would have no historic impacts - an important criteria for securing necessary project approvals. The 41st option would also require that fewer properties be purchased, have fewer traffic impacts, provide better bus access and is considered to be more favorable to potential transit-oriented development. The 41st option also had greater agency and public support, based on the comments received on the Gold Line Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Pecos Station
Two station options were considered for the Pecos Station: Pecos East and Pecos West. The community and Adams County have always expressed overwhelming support for the Pecos East option, because of its ability to provide direct transfers to Northwest Rail (the FasTracks project connecting downtown Denver to Boulder and Longmont). However, the Pecos East station option can only be possible if Adams County is successful in its plans to build a bridge to elevate Pecos Street over the existing railroad tracks. Although RTD prefers the Pecos East location, the funding for the new bridge is not yet definite, so both options will be carried into the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). However, if the funding for the bridge project is confirmed, RTD plans to officially select the Pecos East location.