Consisting of simultaneous, massive improvements to I-25 and I-225 and 19 miles of light-rail expansion, T-REX, scheduled to be finished in 2006, is the second most expensive public works project in Colorado history. Two years after the groundbreaking ceremonies on Sept. 24, 2001, construction is halfway done and the design of the project is 94 percent complete.

By the time T-REX is completed, the amount of dirt excavated would fill the Pepsi Center more than 11 times and the amount of concrete poured would equal a sidewalk 4 feet wide and 4 inches thick from Denver to Washington, D.C.

Between 6 a.m. Sept. 4 to 6 a.m. Sept. 5, 2003:

Concrete: 724.5 cubic yards

Rebar: 127,275 pounds

Signs: about 3,700

Cones: about 5,500

Southeast Corridor Contructors employees: 964 (about 1,250 at peak)

Subcontract employees: about 750

Overall

Excavated dirt: 4 million cubic yards

Concrete: 441,596 cubic yards

Asphalt: 164,152 tons

Steel: 39,700,463 pounds

Primary subcontractors: 145

Contractors/suppliers on the project: 350-400

Who's building it

T-REX is being built by Southeast Corridor Constructors, or SECC, a partnership between Kiewit Western, the construction company, and Parsons Transportation Group, the design team. "T-REX" comes from Transportation Expansion. Marketers came up with the TR and EX, inserted a hyphen, and called it T-REX. The name has stuck.

Tackling the big jobs

Most expensive piece of equipment: Gomaco GP4000 slipform paver. It costs about $1 million new. Can pave a concrete slab 40 feet wide and 14 inches deep.

Heaviest and largest piece of equipment: EX-700 Hitachi excavator. It's used to dig trenches for deep drainage installation.

• 
  
  
• Weight: 165,000 pounds
  
  
• Height: 15 feet
  
  
• Length: 46.5 feet
  
  
• Width: 11.5 feet
  
  
• Bucket capacity: 6 cubic yards
  
  
• Fuel capacity: 218 gallons
  
  

How it stacks up

Denver International Airport: $4 billion

2002 dollars: $4.72 billion

October 1989 - February 1995

Combined cost of T-REX: $1.72 billion

Highway portion (CDOT): $818.2 million

Transit portion (RTD): $901.3 million

I-70 Glenwood Canyon: $500 million

2002 dollars: $641.1 million

April 1980-October 1992

I-70 Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnels: $262 million

2002 dollars: $649.5 million

January 1968-March 1973 and November 1975-1979

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