BOULDER COUNTY

RTD Board to vote on Northwest Rail project

The RTD Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to form a partnership with the State of Colorado and Front Range Passenger Rail to build the northwest rail line to Longmont and on to Fort Collins.

The vote is slated for 3 p.m. at 1660 Blake Street in Denver. The meeting is open to the public, either in person or remotely over Zoom, according to a release. To provide public comment, advance sign-up is available.

The intergovernmental agreement between the state and the Front Range Passenger Rail District includes a joint service plan that would complete the FasTracks Northwest rail line from Denver to Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder and Longmont as part of an intercity rail operation that also serves Loveland and Fort Collins, according to the release.

“With its current funding, RTD cannot build the Northwest line before 2042. But by entering into a partnership, a combination of new state funding sources coupled with RTD’s own FasTracks sales tax cash could get trains rolling by 2029,” the release states.

Additionally, on July 14 at 6:30 p.m., the City of Longmont is set to sponsor a rail event at the Longmont Museum Auditorium.

BOULDER

NCAR access road will close on Fourth of July

The access road leading to the National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Lab in Boulder will close to the public on July 4.

The road that ends at NCAR’s Mesa Lab, 1850 Table Mesa Drive, will be closed on Independence Day at 4 p.m. as will the parking lot and nearby trail access. The road will reopen as usual on July 5.

BROOMFIELD

Buckle in U.S. 36 forces overnight closure in westbound lanes

Part of U.S. 36 buckled Sunday night in Broomfield, shutting the highway down overnight, according to the police department.

Westbound U.S. 36 reopened at mile marker 46.8 early Monday morning, according to a 4:25 a.m. post on X from the Broomfield Police Department.

It’s unclear what caused the road to buckle, and the Colorado Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

The last catastrophic failure on U.S. 36 happened nearly six years ago, when a “slope failure” caused an eastbound overpass of the highway to collapse near Church Ranch Boulevard in Westminster on July 12, 2019.

The collapse shut down the eastbound lanes for nearly three months as construction crews repaired the overpass’s embankment and retaining wall.

Investigators said the collapse could have been fueled by design flaws in the retaining wall’s drainage system and heavy rains during construction.

— Staff reports