DIA has decided to scuttle its plan to “enhance” the commuter-rail bridge over Peña Boulevard with the design of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
On Tuesday, Denver International Airport manager Kim Day said the airport’s $22 million cost for the portion of the bridge it wanted to build was too much and that DIA would instead concentrate on the remainder of its South Terminal redevelopment project.
Last summer, Day and Calatrava unveiled a conceptual design for the bridge, which will carry the airport train over Peña Boulevard just east of its junction with E-470. At that time, they said the bridge would serve as a “signature,” iconic gateway to the airport.
The Regional Transportation District is building the $1.1 billion, 24-mile train from Union Station to DIA as part of RTD’s FasTracks project.
The airport train line is due to open in late 2015 or early 2016.
Officials of RTD, its contractor for the airport-train project and DIA have been assessing and refining costs of the commuter-rail bridge over Peña for more than a year.
Early designs for the entire rail structure over Peña showed a span up to 1,800 feet long, and RTD offered to contribute $7.6 million if DIA assumed responsibility for building the entire bridge, according to officials of the transit agency.
Day acknowledged Tuesday that there had been miscommunication between DIA and RTD officials on the bridge project, and she added that the airport, all along, only intended to build the center portion of the structure, the part crossing Peña Boulevard.
That portion would have been 480 feet long and cost a total of $22 million, including about $15.7 million for construction, with the balance going for design and other “soft” costs, Day said.
When DIA made clear its preference for constructing the bridge’s center portion, RTD said it would contribute only the proportionately reduced amount of $1.4 million to DIA’s enhancement of that segment because the transit agency still would have responsibility for building approach elements of the span totaling more than 1,000 feet.
DIA has retained Calatrava and his firm, Festina Lente, as principal architect and designer of the $500 million South Terminal project, which includes a station at the airport terminal for the DIA train and a 500-room hotel that will be constructed above the train station.
In a Tuesday letter to RTD General Manager Phil Washington, Day said: “I do believe that the crossing of Peña justifies a bridge of character, if not the one designed by Santiago Calatrava that we proposed.
“RTD has shown on the West Corridor line their willingness and ability to upgrade a highway crossing (I am referring to the 6th Avenue Bridge) in a high-traffic area. I would hope that you consider Peña Boulevard a similarly high-profile corridor.”
Washington said the transit agency would continue to work with DIA to develop “a bridge of character” that is “consistent with our FasTracks program.”
Day said halting the airport’s effort to build the Peña bridge will enable DIA to stay within its budget for the South Terminal project.
“We really thought it would be great to have the gateway arch, but clearly, it is not an essential part of the South Terminal project,” she said.
DIA spent about $600,000 on its assessment of possibly enhancing the Peña Boulevard rail bridge, Day said.
In all, the airport has spent about $42 million on the South Terminal project, mostly on what it has identified as “initial program management services,” “visioning” and design.
Of that total so far, about $12.4 million has gone to Calatrava and his firm, said DIA spokesman Jeff Green.
Today, Day will seek support from a City Council committee for a $125 million airport construction contract with a team of contractors that will build the DIA train station and other structures that will support the hotel.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
