AURORA | Aurora’s FasTracks light rail line could move half a mile away from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in order to protect research equipment and machines that detect cancer and tumors.
Regional Transportation District board members announced the proposal at a meeting May 28, saying it would be too costly to build structures to mitigate electromagnetic interference and the project could be significantly delayed if the light rail wasn’t realigned.
They will formally vote on the issue in the coming months. Construction in the area is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2014.
Current plans call for the light rail alignment to travel north along Interstate 225 and turn west onto Montview Boulevard, the street adjacent to several of the university’s health sciences buildings. RTD’s proposal would have the light rail tracks built along the campus perimeter, about half a mile further north from the center of campus, and realigned to Fitzsimons Parkway heading west. The Montview light rail station would also be moved to Fitzsimons Parkway.
Hospital officials say the types of hospital equipment at risk include nuclear magnetic resonance machines used by chemists and biochemists, Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines used to detect cancer and electron microscopes that weigh molecules down to the nano-level.
“These are fundamental instruments that are critical to state-of-the-art bioscience research,” said Michael Del Giudice, director at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus’s Office of Institutional Planning.
The electricity used to power the light rail creates a magnetic field that increases with the speed of the light rail, Del Giudice said. Because technological advances have made research equipment more high-tech and sensitive, the light rail’s magnetic field can cause machines to go awry. That’s not ideal, especially since the equipment is highly expensive. For example, nuclear magnetic resonance machines can cost up to $10 million, Del Giudice said.
Buildings that are part of the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority house mass spectrometers that could also be compromised by the light rail, he said. Current plans have the light rail within 25 feet of some FRA buildings, he said.
If the light rail line did not move away from the campus, it would cost the university between $13 million and $17 million to mitigate the effects of vibration and electromagnetic interference, Bruce Benson, president of the University of Colorado, said in a letter to RTD. And, there would be no guarantee that the mitigation strategies would be effective, he added.
Moving the light rail line to Fitzsimons Parkway would not only help protect research equipment, but it would also better serve Aurora residents, he said.
“… We believe that a Fitzsimons Parkway station location would provide greater access to the surrounding neighborhoods that wish to use the RTD light rail in contrast to the present Montview alignment and station location,” Benson said.
Some Aurora residents also agree that moving the light rail away from the campus would allow public transit users to access more than the Anschutz Medical Campus area. “By moving it north a little bit, it’ll serve the general population better,” said Bernie Rogoff, a member of the city’s Veterans Affairs Commission.
RTD board member Tom Tobiassen, whose district covers Aurora, said there’s no way RTD could afford to pay for mitigation strategies and delay the light rail line.
If the alignment was not changed, RTD officials estimate it would cost millions of dollars to build structures that would reduce the effects of electromagnetic interference, and the entire Interstate 225 FasTracks project could be delayed.
“We have to come up with a plan B,” Tobiassen said.
RTD board members will be working with the light rail’s construction company, Kiewit Infrastructure Co., to see how much the realignment would cost. It could take up to two months before there’s a cost estimate, and there’s always a risk that it could be expensive, Tobiassen said.
However, since the city of Aurora recently built Fitzsimons Parkway, it might be easier for the light rail to run across that stretch of road than if it hadn’t been built at all, Tobiassen said.
“The environmental work has already been done for Fitzsimons Parkway,” Tobiassen said. “If we were going across a blank piece of ground that hadn’t been already tested, the risk would be huge and it would escalate the cost considerably.”
The move could also appeal to developers interested in building retail, housing and office space around the light rail station because they would have more space for development, Tobiassen said.
“This could work out better in a lot of ways,” he said.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
Wait, so they want to move into the park that goes along there and take up much needed green space?
Will there be MRI’s and machines that detect cancer and tumors at the VA Hospital with the Light Rail running closer than on Montview to CU.
As long as the train stays on the south side of Fitzsimons and leaves the open space (and flood plain) alone…