Thornton City Council has approved a 2014 budget increase of $278,637 to fund various FasTracks-related work.

This unanimous decision came during council’s Feb. 25 regular meeting and will serve as the city’s local contribution to the Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks North Metro Line project.

With the amended budget appropriation, the 2014 budget now has authorized expenditures of $199,230,675.

The $278,637 will cover the costs of contract workers, equipment and vehicles.

Robb Kolstad, management and budget director, said that the project will need three staff positions — project manager, utility locator and a construction coordinator. He said these positions will begin either in April or May and will last until the project is completed, which is anticipated to be in 2018.

“What we’re proposing is taking current city employees and assigning them to this project and backfilling their current work portfolio with contract employees,” he said.

Of the budgeted $278,637, an anticipated $181,744 will cover the costs of salaries, benefits, overtime, training and uniforms.

There is also $63,000 carved out to purchase two new vehicles — one for the utility locator and one for the construction coordinator.

“Two of these positions primarily spend their time in the field and will need a vehicle to travel to job sites,” Kolstad said. “Upon completion of the RTD project, those vehicles — because we anticipate them lasting much longer than (the RTD project) — will be reallocated into the city fleet.”

The remaining $33,893 will fund contract plan reviews of the RTD designs that cannot be completed by city staff, fuel, vehicle maintenance costs, communication equipment and computers.