Eagle Project ? Denver
Eagle Project ? Denver
The East and Gold Line Enterprise Project, or ?Eagle? for short, is the first full design/build/finance/operate/maintain PPP for a transit project in the country. The project includes three new commuter rail lines: The East Line, which connects Denver?s Union Station with Denver International Airport; the Gold Line, which connects Union Station with Arvada and Wheat Ridge; and the Northwest Rail Westminster Segment, which connects Union Station to Westminster Station. Eagle is now underway and will be completed in approximately five and half years. The estimated total cost of the project is $2.2 billion.
Partners in the project are the Regional Transportation District (RTD), the U.S. Federal Transit Administration, the Denver Transit Partners (DTP), and various local governments. ?[DTP] is performing five and a half years of design-build activities, followed by 28 and a half years of operations and maintenance, and in addition has provided $450 million in private funding toward the total $2.2 billion capital budget. Of that private funding, DTP used $396 million in proceeds from private activity bonds and $54 million in cash,? says Kevin Flynn, the project?s public information manager.
Local governments are paying 2.5 percent of the capital costs within their boundaries. The remaining costs are covered by federal grants from which RTD is reimbursed after paying contractors.
?The Eagle Project provides a major expansion of RTD?s transit network and will allow residents from across the region to access cities to the north of Denver and the world via the Denver Airport safely and reliably,? Project Director Brian Middleton says. ?In 2016, when the Eagle Project as well as the US 36 BRT [Bus Rapid Transit] and I-225 LRT [Light Rail Transit] projects open for passenger service, RTD will have a transit network comparable with other major cities around the globe.?