The T-REX project has topped $1.7 billion with the addition of $35.6 million in changes and extras ordered by third parties and the project's sponsors.

The original scope of work for expanding Interstates 25 and 225 and extending light rail remains within the initial budget of just under $1.67 billion. Managers are keeping a second budget to account for extras that push the total over the $1.7 billion mark.

Larry Warner, project director for T-REX, said managers consider extra requests as long as the proposals don't throw the job behind schedule or add to the cost of the original work.

But with design nearly 90 percent complete, that won't be happening much longer.

"The opportunity window is closing because design will be finalized in the next couple of months," Warner said.

The extras range from a small payment by the University of Denver to put a bit of its own design into the University light-rail station to $6.9 million from Greenwood Village for a redesign of the Arapahoe Road park-n-Ride.

"In the long-term interest of and future of the community, it was worth that kind of investment," said George Weaver, Greenwood Village's community development director.

The original plan called for a CDOT road maintenance station just south of the park-n-Ride on the east side of I-25, at Yosemite Street and Caley Avenue. The park-n-Ride itself was to be expanded with a garage for 820 vehicles.

Greenwood Village, concerned with preserving future development sites, approached T-REX about combining the parking garage on the parcel with the proposed CDOT facility. That would leave three acres for what's called "transit-oriented development" that mixes high-density housing with commercial and retail space at a transit hub.

Greenwood Village also paid T-REX $239,980 to add concrete imprints and municipal markings on the Belleview, Orchard and Arapahoe bridges in the city. The designs are part of the community's identity, Weaver said. And it paid $62,649 for a more traditional look for light- rail station shelters south of Belleview.

"The village has worked closely with other communities to develop an identity other than what is occurring north of Belleview," Weaver said.

Bradbury Properties, which owns the land near the Lincoln Avenue terminus of the light-rail line in Douglas County, is paying T-REX $2.63 million to add two more levels to a planned parking garage to help serve its development.

Cherokee Denver LLC, which bought the old Gates Rubber plant on south Broadway in Denver at the northern terminus of the T-REX light-rail line, paid $285,800 to have an abutment for the train's flyover bridge moved 10 to 20 feet farther west.

Steve Moyski, president of Cherokee Denver, said that change will create a wider and higher bridge span. It will allow a full roadway connection plus sidewalks to pass under the span. Cherokee plans a mixed-use transit-oriented development there and wants the easy tie-in to the Broadway bus and light-rail station.

Drury Inns, of St. Louis, paid T-REX $571,000 for a similar change. The money covers redesign and construction of a longer light- rail bridge on the north side of Dry Creek Road, replacing about 110 feet of reinforced earthen embankment, so that motorists will be able to see the Drury Inn just west of the interchange. In the original design, the view of the inn was blocked.

The city of Denver is paying $174,639 to design and install fortified foundations and piers at the Louisiana Avenue light-rail station. That will allow future construction of a covering over the station platform.

CDOT accounts for $3.7 million in new work. Part of the money will finance repaving I-25 from County Line Road to Lincoln Avenue, which isn't part of the original T-REX highway improvements.

RTD put in $17.8 million beyond the scope of the original light-rail expansion. Of that amount, $5.7 million in federal grant money will pay half the cost of an electronic messaging system. RTD will pay the other half.

The system will benefit commuters who drive, as well as those who use mass transit. It includes electronic signboards at all the major light-rail stations, including those downtown and southwest that aren't part of T-REX, that will give riders up-to-the-minute information on bus and train arrival times.

It also includes live public address systems and roadside signs to alert motorists when park-n-Ride lots are filled.

flynnk@RockyMountainNews.com or (303)892-5247