Transportation Expansion Project

The Transportation Expansion (T-REX) Project was a $1.67 billion venture that had a goal of transforming the way people in the metro Denver area commute within the areas of Interstates 25 and 225, then the country's 14th busiest intersection. The T-REX effort widened major interstates to as much as 7 lanes wide in each direction and added 19 miles (31 km) of double-track light rail throughout the metropolitan area (40 miles total). It's considered by some to be one of the most successful transportation upgrade projects in the United States. It also received a National Design-Build Award from the Design-Build Institute of America. The T-REX project finished 3.2% under its $1.67B budget and 22 months ahead of schedule in 2006 and is considered to be an example of inter-governmental agency cooperation for transportation projects for North America and Worldwide. Stakeholders have been recognized nationally and internationally for its success, including quality management.

Success in T-REX led to public support of FasTracks during the 2004 election.

The T-REX corridor carries more than 280,000 vehicles per day and connects the two largest employment centers in the region: Downtown Denver and the Denver Tech Center.

T-REX was funded using no new state, county, city, or gas taxes. This was partially due to the TABOR laws enacted in 1992, and the State Leadership's stance against levying additional taxes on its constituents. Instead, metropolitan areas that would benefit from the expansion voted to approve an increase of property taxes required for the build out. In November 1999, voters in affected municipalities approved two property-tax increases which partially funded the transit portion of the project.

Among those :

T-REX's initial footsteps can be traced back to a 1992 traffic congestion study commissioned by the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). The study found that traffic volume along the corridor had exceeded its maximum capacity of 180,000 vehicles per day and, within a few years, the freeway would be near gridlock most of the day. Adding to the gloomy forecast of gridlock, planners projected that 150,000 new jobs would be added in the downtown area and at the huge Denver Tech Center, which is 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the south, over the next 20 years. The study not only recommended widening the freeway by several lanes, but it also suggested incorporating some type of mass transit into any future improvements.

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