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Regional Transportation District of Denver (RTD) officials have determined that a confidential, unsolicited proposal for the North Metro Rail project has "technical merit," prompting the agency to accelerate the release of a request for proposals (RFP) for the project, RTD announced yesterday.

Agency staff spent the past month evaluating the proposal, which a team lead by Graham Contracting Ltd. submitted to the agency on Feb. 22, RTD officials said in a prepared statement.

In January, RTD announced it planned to release the RFP in October to solicit a contractor to build North Metro up to 72nd Avenue by refinancing some of the agency's debt, issuing new sales tax bonds and tapping into available local funds. But, given the technical merit of the Graham proposal, the agency will move up the RFP process to this summer, RTD officials said.

"We're very encouraged by some of the ideas in the proposal, so our goal is to get things moving as soon as possible and see how the market speaks," said RTD General Manager Phil Washington.

The North Metro project calls for building an 18.5-mile electrified commuter-rail line that will connect Denver and Adams County, and serve Commerce City, Northglenn and Thornton.