North Metro Rail Line The Making of a Commuter Rail Corridor. Authors. Number of Words 7258

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1 North Metro Rail Line The Making of a Commuter Rail Corridor Authors Ronald Enserro, PE, RTD 1600 Blake Street Denver, CO (303) ron.enserro@rtd-denver.com Tom Wolf, PE Stantec Consulting Services Inc S. 48th Street Phoenix, AZ (602) tom.wolf@stantec.com Number of Words 7258 ABSTRACT RTD s North Metro Rail Line (NMRL) is a story in the making. It s about partnering with BNSF to run alongside their existing rail operations for access to Denver s Union Station. It s about carving out a corridor literally from thin air as the project will include the state s longest aerial structure of over 9500 feet! And it s about repurposing an aged freight rail spur from UPRR that was rarely used to create a modern commuter rail corridor for the community. The project generally consists of 13.2 miles of commuter rail powered by a 25kV AC Overhead Contact System. The corridor is comprised of industrial properties adjacent to the existing BNSF line, aerial easements over sensitive industrial and public works facilities, and 8 miles of an existing freight rail spur. Working closely with the local jurisdictions and private stakeholders was paramount to achieving the project objectives as the rail line is literally in their back yards. When complete, the electrified rail line will operate four-car consists at 15 minute headways, and at speeds of up to 79 MPH. With six stations in operation, Denver, Commerce City, Northglenn, and City of Thornton will all have a convenient alternative to their daily commute and access to Denver s expanded regional transit system. On track for revenue service by December 2018, the NMRL is a Design-Build project being constructed by Regional Rail Partners, JV and designed by Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1 Major Stakeholders Affected by the Project Figure 1 RTD FasTracks Progress Map Figure 2 Coordination with Major Stakeholders OVERVIEW OF RTD S FASTRACKS PROGRAM In 2004, Denver metro area voters within the Regional Transportation District (RTD) approved a sales tax to fund the FasTracks Plan proposed by RTD that included 146 miles of light rail and commuter rail lines, 18 miles of bus rapid transit (BRT), 57 new transit stations, 31 new Park-n-Rides (PnR), and over 21,000 new parking spaces throughout the District. RTD s mission statement is Build as much as we can, as fast as we can, until it s all done. The FasTracks program has been ongoing since By the end of 2016, RTD will have completed and 460 AREMA 2016

2 activated five rail lines (four in 2016), 18 miles of BRT, Denver Union Station (DUS) terminal, a new commuter rail maintenance facility, and under contract to design and construct two additional rail lines. The rail transit system in the greater Denver metropolitan area consists of a fully integrated and modern system of both Light Rail and Commuter Rail built by several FasTracks projects over the past decade. Denver Union Station (DUS): Premier multi-modal transit station with renovation completed in Eagle P3: A Public-Private Partnership to design, construct, operate, and maintain 36 miles of electrified commuter rail for the next 34 years. This project is now in revenue service with several sections: East Rail Line (A Line): A 23-mile electric commuter rail transit line that runs from DUS to Denver International Airport. Gold Line (G Line): An 11.2-mile electric commuter rail transit line that will connect DUS to Wheat Ridge, passing through northwest Denver. Northwest Rail Line (B Line): A 6.2-mile high-capacity, fixed-guideway transit project from DUS to Longmont, passing through North Denver. Eventually the full 41-mile corridor will extend to Boulder, Co. Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility (CRMF): A new maintenance facility that will serve as the hub for the Eagle P3 and North Metro commuter rail fleet. I-225 Rail Line (R Line): A 10.5-mile light rail line within the City of Aurora that connects the Eagle P3 East Rail Line with the existing Southeast Rail Line. Southeast Rail Extension: The Southeast Rail Extension is a 2.3-mile extension to the existing 19 miles of double track LRT line built and put into operation in Southwest Rail Extension: A 2.5 mile extension to the existing 8.7 mile Southwest Rail light rail line that has been in operation since Central Rail Extension: Short but crucial Light Rail link to the East Commuter Rail (A Line). West Rail Line (W Line): A 12.1-mile light rail line that runs between DUS and the City of Golden. US 36 BRT (Flatiron Flyer): An 18-mile BRT line that travels between DUS and the City of Boulder through the Cities of Westminster and Broomfield. North Metro Rail Line (N Line): An 18.5-mile electric commuter rail line that connects DUS with the cities of Denver, Commerce City, Northglenn, and Thornton, as well as Adams County. AREMA

3 Figure 1 RTD FASTRACKS PROGRESS MAP 462 AREMA 2016

4 CARVING A NEW COMMUTER RAIL CORRIDOR IN DENVER S LANDSCAPE This paper takes a close look at the extensive agency coordination and stakeholder participation that made the North Metro Rail Line project successful. The North Metro Rail Line project is an 18.5 mile, electrified, commuter rail line that begins in downtown Denver at the Denver Union Station (DUS) and extends north to the residential communities. It will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 extends 13.2 miles from DUS to 124 th Ave., and is on schedule for revenue service in Phase 2 consists of five miles from 124 th to 162 nd Ave. Design of Phase 1 was completed this spring by Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. and its 15 subconsultants as part of a Design- Build contract with Regional Rail Partners (RRP; a Joint Venture comprising of Balfour Beatty and Graham), and is currently under construction. Key features of the North Metro Rail Line include the Skyway Bridge (longest in Colorado), which is over 9,600 feet long; eight other new bridges; one retrofitted trestle bridge; and six stations with Park-n-Ride facilities including an 800+ space parking garage. The first 5 miles of the project follows a new corridor alignment that requires purchasing right-of-way (ROW), business relocations, and property agreements. The northern 8 miles consists of purchasing the Boulder Industrial Lead track from UPRR and repurposing it as a modern commuter rail corridor. How do you build a new commuter rail corridor in a long-established metropolitan area? Commuter rail corridors are linear and transect a number of communities, land uses, and sensitive properties, creating numerous issues and challenges that must be addressed, as well as taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. In many cases, the expectations and interests of the many stakeholders can be met in a mutually satisfactory or win-win manner, but it takes the support and sincere desire of all parties involved to make it happen. More than 60 stakeholders played an integral and essential part in the development of the North Metro Rail corridor. They are loosely categorized in four basic groups: Local Jurisdictions have design standards and approval processes that the project needs to comply with for permitting, as well as Right of Way (ROW) impacts to resolve. Utility Providers - have utility relocation concerns, utility requirements, and easements to address. Other Key Stakeholders are impacted by ROW, design criteria, and approval processes. This consists of private businesses. Regulatory Agencies have review, regulatory authority, and permitting responsibilities. Table 1 lists the major stakeholders involved and roughly defines the nature of their involvement. A CLOSER LOOK AT THE STAKEHOLDER CHALLENGES ALONG THE ALIGNMENT The Design-Builder divided the North Metro Rail Line corridor into eight areas that were loosely defined by their type of construction, construction schedule, and the major stakeholders within them. Each area faced its own unique set of challenges, which RTD and RRP overcame by partnering throughout the design development phase. Area A; the DUS Connection Located in the heart of Denver s downtown business district, renovation of DUS was completed just two years ago. It is the hub for RTD s commuter rail and light rail transit systems, as well as Amtrak and Greyhound bus services. More than just a train station, DUS is home to the historic Crawford Hotel and boasts an eclectic array of the City s top restaurants, bars, and shops. The North Metro Rail Line enters DUS by way of the recently completed East Rail Line, which extends to DIA. The traction power for the entire North Metro Rail Line comes from the single substation installed on the East Rail Line, making the connection to the East Rail Line time critical. The Design-Builder accelerated its schedule to coordinate the systems design and track turnout with the East Rail Line construction, as it had to be completed by December 2014 to keep in step with the construction schedule of the East Rail Line. AREMA

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6 Areas B and C; the BNSF Alignment The only viable alignment for the North Metro Rail Line from DUS is along the existing BNSF mainline tracks, which have been in service since the 1880s. In short, RTD needed ROW from BNSF, which was negotiated in exchange for a grade separated railroad crossing and the construction of subgrade for a future mainline track. Weekly coordination meetings with BNSF during the design and construction of their facilities ensured their requirements were met. Working closely with BNSF personnel in this manner expedited their review and approval of the ROW. The vast majority of the North Metro Rail Line corridor is either alongside BNSF tracks, aerial, or in the old UPRR Boulder Industrial Lead corridor. This minimized property acquisitions, but could not eliminate them. In these first three areas of the North Metro Rail Line, acquisitions from industrial properties were necessary, including a partial take from Federal Express that required modification to its building and a total take of the Ready Ice building. Property acquisitions from the National Western Stock Show Association (NWSSA) were necessary for development of the National Western Center Station, located at the National Western Stock Show grounds. Working with the City and County of Denver and NWSSA, the site planning of the station minimized the property take for the station while accommodating the City s plan for future roadway widening of Brighton Blvd. Acquiring ROW from BNSF in this area sandwiched the North Metro Rail Line between active BNSF rail and Brighton Blvd. With the City s plan to widen the roadway, acquiring Brighton Blvd. ROW or even obtaining easements of any kind for the commuter rail was strictly unallowable. Therefore, the track was built with Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) retaining walls up to 12 feet high on both sides. The face of the walls are placed just two feet from the property line, which made it challenging to design OCS poles, signal equipment, and emergency egress within the defined rail ROW. Because of the close proximity of the BNSF tracks to the North Metro Rail Line (less than 25 feet), special crashworthy walls were required at the National Western Center Station and incorporated into the retaining wall design along this section. The entrance to the Riverside Cemetery requires an at-grade crossing with both the BNSF and the North Metro Rail Line. RTD worked closely with the City of Denver and the BNSF to develop a new alternate entrance and are working to close this low traffic volume and high rail use crossing. Area D; the Skyway Bridge This section of the corridor consists of crossing over the BNSF tracks, through a highly industrial and environmentally sensitive area. Going aerial was the only solution. At 9,600 feet long and over 50 feet at its highest, the Skyway Bridge is now Colorado s longest aerial structure. A rail bridge this long presents unique challenges, such as designing Direct Fixation without the use of rail expansion joints and providing emergency egress to meet requirements of NFPA 130. Emergency egress is required to be provided at intervals not to exceed 2,500 feet. Five stair towers were built to provide emergency egress along the aerial structure. We continued to work closely with BNSF in this area to coordinate crossing over the existing BNSF track, as well as two future track alignments. Vertical and horizontal track clearances met the railroad s minimum requirements; however, horizontal clear distances of over 22 feet required the piers to be designed to meet heavy construction requirements. In addition to crossing rail lines, the Skyway also passes over a Suncor oil refinery, a national security concern and potential hazardous materials generator. Going aerial across Suncor property minimized the potential to encounter contaminated soils. Even then, special procedures needed to be established for mitigating contaminated soils that were encountered during the excavation for the bridge piers. Because of the high level of security, Suncor mandated installation of a special visual screen on the bridge so that no one on the train could look down onto the property. In addition, the design team worked with Suncor to evaluate the bridge design to ensure it could withstand a worst case blast scenario from the refinery. The project faced another high risk security concern when passing over Denver Waste Management property. The RTD/Design-Build team worked closely with Denver Waste Management to ensure their AREMA

7 property could not be breached from the commuter rail tracks or emergency egress towers. Supplemental cameras and alarm systems were installed on the tower adjacent to the Denver Waste Management facility, as well as at bridge abutments. The Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Company (FRICO) owns and operates several reservoirs and over 400 miles of canals across Colorado. The Big Burlington Ditch, is one of FRICO s major water transmission canals, ranging from 60 to 100 feet wide and delivering up to 614 million gallons of water per day to agricultural water users in northeastern Colorado. The North Metro Rail Line runs immediately adjacent to the canal for over 1.5 miles and crosses over the canal three times. Piers for the Skyway Bridge were carefully located to avoid impacts to the canal and other major utilities. A 14-foot wide access road along the banks of the canal was protected so that the canal could be inspected and maintained. Straddle bents up to 100 feet long were used to span over and protect the access roadway and canal. The alternative would have been to provide a concrete lining for the length of the canal. Denver Water is another major entity in this industrialized area. They maintain a complex of nine water reservoirs with an estimated 32,200 acre-feet of water storage to serve the water needs of the metropolitan area. One of Denver Water s larger reservoirs, the Bambie-Walker Reservoir, is located at the north end of the Skyway Bridge and is on one side of the rail line, the FRICO canal is on the other. RTD worked closely with Denver Water in the preliminary engineering phase to modify the reservoir s bank to accommodate the track alignment. As a separate construction project, RTD filled in a portion of the reservoir during drought conditions when the reservoir was empty which prevented the need to drain the reservoir or construct and dewater an extensive coffer dam under normal water level conditions. This would have caused much public scrutiny and cost the project millions of dollars more. Access Roads along the banks of the reservoir and the canal were provided, but still required a private crossing of the tracks. While used infrequently, the crossing is accessed and monitored through exclusive permission from RTD. The Skyway spans over I-270, a 6-lane freeway, but requires a pier in the median. Close coordination with CDOT during the design and construction of the bridge resulted in minimal disruption to traffic. Xcel Energy Company is one of 40 utilities we coordinated with during the design and construction of the project. Xcel s overhead power lines cross the corridor at five locations, three of which are major transmission lines. Areas E H; the UPRR alignment; Just when you think you re in the clear The UPRR s Boulder Industrial Lead is a spur track that extends from Denver s industrial area north a little over 33 miles to the Valmont Power plant in Boulder where it dead ends. UPRR constructed the Boulder Industrial Lead track in the 1910 s, through a fairly rural Denver area at the time. Over the last hundred years a great deal of commercial and residential development has taken place, forming communities such as Commerce City, Northglenn, and the City of Thornton. Over the years development expanded and eventually backed up to the railroad s ROW. In several locations arterial streets and highways crossed the railroad at grade. Several utilities obtained easement permits from the railroad to construct their utilities along and across the railroad corridor. In recent years, operations on UPRR s Boulder Industrial Lead track dwindled to serving only one customer with delivery of materials less than once a week. This made the corridor very attractive for a commuter rail, thus opening dialogue between RTD and UPRR for acquisition of the ROW. Even though the corridor is well suited for a commuter rail line, there were still numerous challenges associated with repurposing it for a commuter rail. A number of improvements were needed to bring it to standards that met the requirements of RTD, regulatory agencies, and the surrounding local jurisdictions. Repurposing the Alignment Meeting Commuter Rail Criteria The old Boulder Industrial Lead corridor consisted of one track. To meet the needs of the commuter rail RTD s simulation model showed that approximately 60% of the corridor needed double track to operate as intended. However it was required that the entire UPRR section be designed such that a double track could be constructed in the future without taking additional ROW. This caused a balance to be struck in adjusting the horizontal and vertical alignments to keep within the ROW, maximize the civil speed of the track, and minimize the earthwork to the extent practical. Design variances were reviewed and accepted 466 AREMA 2016

8 by RTD that allowed for some deviation to the commuter rail criteria without losing its operational goals and ensuring a safe operable system. Drainage The Denver metropolitan area has grown to become home to 2.7 million people, forever changing the landscape on the Front Range, as well as the drainage patterns and flood plain limits. The rail corridor lies within the South Platte River Basin, which encompasses more than 4,000 square miles. But within that tributary area, there are ten perennial streams or rivers that cross the corridor. In addition, several irrigation ditch companies have developed along the drainage ways to manage water for the agricultural lands to the north and east. Pipes that were installed over 100 years ago are undersized by today s standards and have caused detention issues that needed to be resolved. Nearly 1,000 feet of the alignment was raised to ensure the subballast was maintained above the current 100-year flood plain. Replacement of practically all of the culverts under the existing track was necessary to bring the drainage ways to current standards. Meetings with Urban Drainage and Flood Control District ensured their ability to maintain drainage ways and retention areas adjacent to and sometimes within RTD s ROW. At-Grade Crossings Modernizing at-grade crossings to meet Quite Zone requirements by coordinating with Colorado s Public Utility Commission (PUC), grade separation at 88 th Ave. eliminated extensive street and utility reconstruction. Grades on 88 th Avenue are in excess of 7%. An at-grade crossing meeting current standards would require the track and approaches to be relatively flat, which would cause significant regrading and reconstruction of 88 th Ave. extending several hundred feet in each direction. Such regrading would propagate through adjacent intersections and onto other side streets. Walls would need to be constructed along with much of the ROW, which in turn creates additional drainage issues. Both municipal and private utilities would need to be relocated. So the easier, more cost effective solution was to leave 88 th Ave. as is and provide grade separation. Stations and the Community With six stations soon to be in operation, Denver, Commerce City, Northglenn, and City of Thornton will all have convenient locations to access the North Metro Rail Line. Over 2,000 parking stalls were provided with plans to double that number within the next 15 years. Stations serve the community and therefore connect with the community. As such, there is a great deal of coordination with each of the cities to ensure their communities can safely and efficiently access the commuter rail system. For the 88 th Ave. and 124 th Ave. stations, city streets were relocated to accommodate sufficient room for the station and associated parking. The Design-Build team worked closely with the City to relocate sewer and water lines, reestablish ROW and easements, and rebuild local streets to ensure adequate capacity and traffic circulation. Development review staff in each of the cities reviewed their respective station site plans. Even though the stations are designed to RTD s stations design standards and criteria, they also had to meet the requirements of the local jurisdiction where they are located. This is not always a straight forward task, as design requirements may conflict with one another. Requirements cited in development reviews are typically not captured in the IGAs that were established during the early project development phase. Such agreements are intended to be more broad based and cannot afford to get into the level of detail that development reviews require. It was found; however, that effective resolution over parting issues could be met by identifying the differences and presenting solutions to both parties (with decision authority) in the same room to reach a mutual decision. While this may sound straight forward, it entails careful planning of such meetings. At the end of the day; however, the City releases the permits for construction, so they have a definite say in the design of the stations and improvements in their community. It is inevitable that local jurisdictions will take the opportunity to piggy back other improvements or betterments on such transit projects; the North Metro Rail Line being no exception. Rightly so, local jurisdictions are just looking for the best value in their investments for their community. What is important here is that such dialogue should occur as early as possible. The longer a city or stakeholder waits to AREMA

9 make a decision to include a betterment in a project, the more likely it will affect design or construction activities. Partnering with the local jurisdictions and sharing the project schedule regularly is crucial for keeping stakeholders informed so that they can make timely internal decisions. The City of Thornton worked with RTD and the Design-Build team very early on to completely reconfigure the 104 th Ave. Station and make it a showcase for the City. It would become a win-win scenario for both parties that started at the partnering workshop with the City. Due to ROW constraints, the station was originally planned to be elevated with a linear parking facility and undesirable pedestrian and vehicular circulation. Parking stalls were as much as two blocks away from the station entrance. Working with the City, a solution was quickly found by relocating a drainage retention area and constructing a four-story parking garage. While the solution may sound simple, there were countless discussions that took place to make such a move. CDOT The North Metro Rail line crosses the CDOT highway system at six locations (I-70, I-270, I-76, Brighton/HWY 265, 74 th Ave./HWY 224, 104 th Ave./HWY 44), span over at four locations, and under at two locations. Design of Arc Flash protection from the OCS and Pier protection were provided for the existing bridge structures. Technical review, coordination, and permitting with CDOT were accomplished efficiently through their district office. CDOT assigned a coordinator and point of contact for the project with the authority to make decisions on behalf of the agency. STAKEHOLDER COORDINATION The demographics of the stakeholders cover a broad spectrum of ROW interests, governmental regulation, industrial property, utility providers, and local jurisdiction interests. These stakeholders were represented by talented individuals who participated in steering the development of the project while upholding their interests. Effective coordination and interaction with this community of stakeholders were essential to ensure an overall public acceptance of the project. Intergovernmental Agreements Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA) were established and finalized with local agencies during the design process to define the transfer of property, design review processes, limitations of city reviews and construction inspections (i.e. specific items along the corridor and all items within the guideway were considered RTD specialty items and off limits for local agency review and comment), review timelines, and generally outlined the needs of both parties during the design and construction phase of the project. Property agreements were included in local agency IGAs in some cases, but for non-local agencies were the primary agreement between RTD and key stakeholders defined the type and limits of property transfer. This was done by a direct fee purchase or easement, the working facility needs for both parties, access through property for future use, and infrastructure additions or adjustments, such as fences and gates. Utility owners included both public local agencies and private utility companies. The North Metro project relocated more than 125 utilities in Phase 1. Defining and Communicating the Design Requirements The development of Design criteria was a unique challenge on the project. Since commuter rail is new to RTD, the North Metro team utilized the Eagle P3 project Design Basis Manual as a starting point for the development of its own design manual. During the preliminary planning of the North Metro Rail Line, RTD staff worked with the West Corridor, Denver Union Station, and Eagle P3 project staff to better understand design and construction challenges and potential discrepancies in design criteria from other FasTracks projects, including the Eagle P3. The North Metro project team developed, selected, and, modified criteria for portions of the project, as well as edited and improved on portions of the contract requirements to better spell out additional criteria. Due to this meshing of multiple criteria and contract documents, RRP developed a North Metro Design Basis Manual that merged all RTD criteria into one location. 468 AREMA 2016

10 The project design criteria ultimately became a blend of RTD s criteria coupled with local, state, and federal agency criteria and even included some third party requirements. The Design-Build team had to not only understand each of these criteria, but their differences and where each may overlap one another, and to simultaneously navigate through the design review process with RTD and stakeholders. One unique element of the North Metro project is that while RTD is building the project, they will contract out the operation and maintenance of the rail line. It is anticipated that the Eagle P3 concessionaire, Denver Transit Partners (DTP), will be selected to perform these services. This has brought DTP to the project to perform an additional level of design review on North Metro. Effective Coordination with Stakeholders It took a large number of meetings and an equally large time commitment to successfully coordinate with the Stakeholders. More than 300 meetings were held with stakeholders throughout the course of North Metro Rail Line s development. While numerous public meetings were conducted during the planning stages, the majority of meetings took place during the design and construction phases. Technical Work Group (TWG) meetings were conducted on a regular basis (typically every other week) during the design phase to specifically address the major design disciplines; utilities, track and roadway, drainage, stations, systems, structures, and environmental. These meetings primary purpose was to inform RTD and the stakeholders of the progress and resolve current issues. Impacted cities participated heavily in the TWG meetings, which was important to developing acceptance of the project and learning and understanding the cities requirements. In many cases, technical issues were resolved during TWGs that would have otherwise delayed a design package from moving to construction. The cities were also a valuable resource in understanding local issues, such as drainage through developed areas, knowledge of difficult property owners, understanding local utilities, and coordinating with new development near station sites. RTD and RRP met with local agencies on a regular basis during the design phase. These meetings took place once each month at a minimum, but were frequently held on a weekly basis. Meetings occurred at both the technical and management levels. Technical meetings were intended to discuss any topic, from which design packages were coming in for review to any unresolved technical issue that needed further discussion to resolve. Management meetings focused on managing the IGA, addressing requests from cities to add features to the project (Betterment Requests), identifying easements and ROW needs, and generally making a face-to-face connection to understand the needs and political pulse from city management. Specific meetings were held with major property owners and utility providers, such as Suncor, BNSF, Denver Water, National Western Stock Show, and FRICO. These meetings were focused on working with the stakeholders to resolve numerous concerns dealing with their facilities. Issues generally included protection of property and improvements, minimizing impacts to their operations, access for maintenance, schedules for possible outages, constructability impacts, and easements. Establishing Good Working Relationships and Building Trust North Metro Rail Line crosses a number of existing streets, which creates a lot of issues; relocation of utilities, rezoning land, acquisition of properties (in whole and in part), and establishment of a variety of easements to name a few. Often times this creates unique situations that the local jurisdictions must contend with. The North Metro rail corridor spans across five local jurisdictions: 3.6 miles in City and County of Denver, 2.0 mile in Commerce City, 2.3 mile in Adams County, 1.2 mile in Northglenn, 4.1 miles in the City of Thornton Understanding established standards and procedures of local jurisdictions were essential to addressing these issues, but perhaps more importantly, establishing good working relationships and building trust with the community, which was the key to developing win-win solutions. AREMA

11 This approach extends to the major stakeholders as well, since they are owners of major utilities and facilities impacted by the rail corridor. Figure 2 depicts the major stakeholders that were actively involved during the design, and the relative proportion of the corridor s length impacting them, which we also found to be proportional to the level of coordination that took place with the stakeholders. It also shows that stakeholders such as BNSF, Suncor and FRICO were just as affected as some of the Cities. Extensive coordination with their staff was necessary to obtain their acceptance of the project. Figure 2 Coordination with Major Stakeholders Adams Cnty National Western Stockshow Denver Water Metro Wastewater City of Thornton CDOT FRICO Suncor Oil City/County of Denver City of Northglenn BNSF Commerce City Design Review Process Contractually, the Design-Build team was required to formally submit their design for review at 60%, 90%, and 100% completion milestones to RTD and applicable stakeholders. However, the TWG meetings were used to review the design progress and take the place of a traditional 30% design. Designs were submitted to RTD for a 15-working-day review. Once this was accepted by RTD, RRP would send plans to stakeholders for their review. In most cases, IGAs set a review limit of 15 working days, with longer limits or no limits for other stakeholders. After the first few design packages, this approach of review by RTD and the stakeholders was adjusted to a concurrent review (RTD and stakeholders performing review at the same time) to help expedite the project schedule. On select critical path design packages, the formal 60% review was changed to a 60% over- the-shoulder review with a shortened review period of a few days with a formal review meeting to discuss comments. Quality is one of the FasTracks program s core objectives. The North Metro team as part of its oversight responsibilities performs design review that is focused on ensuring that design requirements they have been fulfilled which is critical to enabling the measurement of quality during the North Metro project implementation. The design requirements are the backbone of the project since they do most of the work in communicating what RTD and stakeholders want the project to achieve. 470 AREMA 2016

12 Since the project is being delivered using the design-build delivery method, RRP is solely responsible for ensuring that the design documents are free of errors and omissions. RTD s Design Review approach is focused on verifying that RRP has designed the project to meet all design contract requirements, including RTD design criteria, stakeholder requirements, and any approved design variances. Design review, as well as the review of all contracted documents, are compared against contract requirements. Contract requirements include all language in the contract and attachments, all design criteria, and all documents provided with and required in the contract. For example, when reviewing a bridge design, the reviewer would check to verify that all RTD specific criteria and loading conditions were met, as well as AREMA criteria. Any review comments would not only include the comment identified, but also include the associated contract requirement. RTD strives to have all design review comments connected to a contract requirement to eliminate the contractor, in this case RRP and Stantec, from refusing to make the requested changes. The benefit of verifying that design requirements have been fulfilled explicitly is that it allows RTD and stakeholders to obtain information on an ongoing basis as to whether the contractor is meeting the design requirements of the Contract. Right-of-Way Process RTD has an internal Real Property department that manages both existing properties and the acquisition of new properties needed throughout the district. Due to a large number of properties needed for the FasTracks corridors, the North Metro project included much of the technical work to acquire new property in the RRP contract. As a result, the designers identifying new property to acquire are on the contractor s team, who could prioritize the acquisitions to meet their construction schedule. In addition, the persons preparing the property acquisition information would work with both groups to meet the project schedule. On many of the previous RTD projects, the RTD Real Property group was overloaded and thus impacted project schedules. By including the acquisition process in the contractor s scope of work, the schedule was easier to manage. In general, RTD provided an ROW footprint that established property limits had been negotiated with stakeholders and some of the property owners and incorporated into RRP s contract. The RRP design team worked to stay within this footprint and minimize impacts. Minimizing impacts (less new ROW needed) was accomplished through the use of additional aerial structures (lengthening a bridge or adding a new bridge) and adding retaining walls. Once it was determined that new ROW was needed and agreed to by RTD and the RTD Board of Director s, the RRP team would prepare the appraisals and all supporting documentation for RTD to execute the acquisition. Through this collaborative process between RTD and RRP, not a single residential property was taken as part of this project. Management Tools The project team is primarily located in the Denver metro area. The RTD management and technical staff and the RRP management and construction collocated in a project office near the North Metro alignment. The vast majority of the design team is located in the Denver metro area, but there are some technical experts and additional production staff located throughout the United States. To maintain efficient communications and exchange of documents, the project team utilized a few internet-based design and management tools. Aconex: Aconex is an RTD FasTracks program based document control tool, similar to that file cabinet we all have in our office used to store official letters, correspondence, official design documents, contracts, agreements, and all other essential record documents. Aconex is an internet based tool that allows ease of storage, recovery, and transmittal of official mail, documents, and records of all sizes. This tool played a key role in meeting the design review schedule, as well as the project schedule by being able to pass large documents from RRP to RTD and for RTD to distribute internally within minutes of receiving the submittal. QMO: The FasTracks Quality Management Oversight program team developed a tool named the QMO, an internet-based software tool which is used to enter design review comments with references to contract requirements, stores the comments in a secure database, and provides for AREMA

13 documented communication between the reviewer and designer, allows for plans and other documents to be attached, and ultimately tracks each comment to a satisfactory resolution and closure. During the design process, the North Metro project oversight team, and stakeholders have processed and resolved over 12,000 comments. Similar numbers of review comments were processed on other FasTracks projects as well. The QMO allows easy access to review and sort comments by design package and generate reports to view overall project status. In addition, the QMO software facilitates organization of the results in order to provide information about trends, which can are depicted in graphs and charts. ProjectWise: The design team used ProjectWise as a central internet-based storage point to manage all design files and design documents. This allows easy access to the latest design data to be referenced by any team member regardless of their location. CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED In conclusion, we offer the following observations that have contributed to the project s success: Communication Communication is considered the key to success in every project, but executing good communication takes active planning and flexibility. The North Metro project utilized a mixture of formal and informal meetings to communicate between RTD and RRP and with stakeholders. Formal meetings such as technical TWGs, stakeholder meetings, and management meetings were regularly scheduled to formally discuss critical topics, design progression, stakeholder concerns, and current political issues. In most cases, topics of importance took several meetings to determine a solution and formalize a path forward. Informal meetings were held with stakeholders that purposely had no agendas. These were very useful to allow the stakeholder to bring their own agenda items or to hold a more informal conversation type meeting. Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA) IGAs are to the benefit of both parties to set the rules on how they will work together. One of the key benefits we found was to eliminate stakeholder design and construction review of all guideway items. The more specific the IGA can describe project responsibilities, the better. We found some stakeholders to agree to the original terms and then question the wording and intent during the project thus causing schedule delays. Establishing limits for design review will help establish the project schedule. We set a 15 working day design review limit that most stakeholders have upheld. Without a formal set review limit, stakeholders with small staffs may become overwhelmed with the volume of design review and may take much longer than planned to receive their comments. Look for Opportunities When an opportunity arises that will benefit the project, layout and act on a plan to identify and overcome obstacles that may be associated with it. The North Metro Rail Line runs immediately adjacent to the Bambie Walker reservoir, where at one time encroached on its bank. When Denver Water unexpectedly emptied the reservoir due to the drought in 2013, RTD accelerated a special construction contract to take advantage of the situation and fill in a portion of the reservoir thereby avoiding very costly embankment construction in normal water levels. This alone saved the program more than a million dollars. 472 AREMA 2016

14 North Metro Rail Line The making of a commuter rail corridor Ron Enserro Tom Wolf AREMA

15 RTD FasTracks overview RTD FasTracks status North Metro Rail Line carving out a new rail corridor A closer look The first 2 ½ miles 474 AREMA 2016

16 A closer look - The Skyway Bridge A closer look UPRR Boulder Industrial Lead Track Four Phases to building Collaboration Know the Stakeholders - key to success Manage Expectations - rules of engagement Effective Communication - building trust AREMA

17 Stakeholder Collaboration - The silver lining Stakeholder Collaboration - The silver lining Stakeholder Collaboration - The silver lining Stakeholder Collaboration - The silver lining Suncor - A pipeline for a bridge Reddy Ice A cooler new location Stakeholder Collaboration - The silver lining Frei Quarry - Transformation to TOD Dynamic Metals Opportunity Strikes Lessons Learned communication is key 476 AREMA 2016

18 Lessons Learned IGAs Matter Keys to Success Questions? AREMA