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Two elements of the Regional Transportation District of Denver's (RTD) FasTracks program were honored at the 2011 Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS) awards event held Feb. 24 at Mile High Station in Denver. The award recognizes public and private sector professionals for excellence in transportation.

The RTD systems engineering division received the "Small Project of the Year" award for "innovative systems upgrade solution" as part of a four-car platform extension project completed in December 2010, RTD officials said in a prepared statement.

"This was a very challenging project because we had to work around an existing operating light-rail system," said Pranaya Shrestha, RTD's senior manager of systems engineering and construction. "Our goals were to minimize inconvenience to our customers, maintain a high level of safety and quality, while meeting the schedule and budget."

The project called for expanding power and signal systems to enable RTD to operate four-car light-rail trains to increase rider capacity. The work entailed relocating signal, communication equipment and associated duct banks at the Pepsi, INVESCO Field at Mile High, and Oxford at City of Sheridan and Littleton Mineral stations.

Also at the WTS event, Jacobs Engineering, the prime contractor serving as FasTracks program support consultant, received the WTS Diversity Leadership award for showing "commitment and dedication through its inclusion of small and disadvantaged businesses, as well as a diverse team," RTD officials said.