Portland Streetcar News

[tworivers]

I'm pretty sure that the current target date for the start of construction is May 1st.

One thing I am curious about is what the status of the East Burnside/Couch Couplet is, and how the two projects will coordinate construction schedules. Anyone know?

[NJD]

If I remember correctly, without a federal stimulus package, burn/ couch's tentative construction date is not until 2012-2014...

***EDIT: that is for WEST Burn/ Couch, the EAST couplet is at 60% engineering, is budgeted at $17.8 million (roughly $5-10 mil short of original plan), and is expected to coincide with the streetcar loop and bridgehead projects (even though the bridgehead is currently dead, but the infrastructure improvements will still be made). The bridgehead property will be used as a staging area for both construction projects.

[65MAX]

Great info, NJD.

Does the "East" portion include the Burnside Bridge?

[zilfondel]

Whatever happened to Sam's proposal to build a Burnside Streetcar? Did that fall through?

[NJD]

^ The Burnside streetcar will be funded/built with or after the West Burnside Couplet project. The Eastside project will be 'streetcar ready' for the next phase.


from www.portlandonline.com

[NJD]

Odds improve for streetcar funding: Obama administration likely to fulfill pledge
Portland Business Journal

Oregon’s key representative for transportation funding issues said Thursday the Barack Obama administration will likely provide funds that could allow construction of Portland’s newest streetcar line to begin next summer.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, said Obama’s transition team members will provide the $75 million needed that would allow the $147 million project to get underway. The Bush Administration had committed the money but the funds haven’t been released because of bickering between transportation and budget officials.

“I’ve had pretty strong assurances from the (transition) team that ... we’ll be in very good condition when funding closes,” DeFazio said during Thursday’s Oregon Leadership Summit.

The money would allow production of the streetcars to begin at Oregon Iron Works, the Clackamas company that hopes to market similar vehicles nationwide. The Portland cars would mark the company’s first production line.

The streetcar line would run north and south along Martin Luther King Boulevard and Grand Avenue, accessing downtown via the Broadway Bridge.

“This is great news,” said Rick Gustafson, director of operations for the streetcar project. “We’re on schedule and ready to go, we just needed the construction grant from the local government. Congressman DeFazio’s announcement shows that he’s working diligently on this.”

Gustafson said a final design could be in place by March. Construction could begin July 1 and take about two years to complete.

The project’s remaining funds will come from local sources.

[65MAX]

Great news. Thanks for keeping us updated NJD.

[tworivers]

Still waiting for full funding...

Stacy and Witbeck wins streetcar contract
$77M transportation project will extend line into northeast Portland and south to OMSI

POSTED: 04:00 AM PST Tuesday, February 17, 2009
BY JUSTIN CARINCI

When the city of Portland wanted a streetcar system built a decade ago, it chose Stacy and Witbeck as construction manager and general contractor. Stacy and Witbeck then built the system’s extension to the South Waterfront District.

So when the city’s Office of Transportation sought an experienced construction manager and general contractor to extend the streetcar across the Willamette River, Stacy and Witbeck was a natural choice – but not necessarily an easy one. Stacy and Witbeck’s proposal narrowly edged out one by Kiewit Pacific, city officials said.

The Portland Streetcar Loop Project will extend the current west-side system into northeast Portland and south to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Construction on the 3.3-mile extension is estimated to cost around $77 million, out of a total project cost of $147 million.

Preconstruction is scheduled to begin in March, said Vicky Diede, streetcar project manager with the city. Construction could start by summer, she said, depending on funding.

“We’re still waiting for the Federal Transit Administration to give us the go-ahead,” Diede said. “Everything is kind of tied up with the federal fiscal year 2009 appropriations and the stimulus package. All that has to be sorted out for it to go ahead.”

The project will bring streetcars over the Broadway Bridge onto Northeast Weidler Street and then south along Northeast Seventh Avenue. Streetcars would continue west on Oregon Street to the Oregon Convention Center and then south along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the OMSI area. The return trip would follow Grand Avenue and Broadway.

The streetcar extension will cross Interstates 5 and 84 as well as the rail bridge near the southern junction of MLK and Grand. The Broadway Bridge crossing will also be tricky, with major seismic and structural steel upgrades, Stacy and Witbeck project manager Steve Wood said.

“A newer bridge design would incorporate streetcar,” Wood said. “But it’s a hundred-year-old bridge.”

Researching the Broadway Bridge’s history gives some inspiration, if little guidance, Wood said. “At some time, it did have a streetcar crossing it,” Wood said, “which doesn’t tell us much.”

Stacy and Witbeck will recycle and reuse construction material as backfill on the project and use biodiesel fuel, Wood said. The company also plans to buy materials locally to keep trucking costs and impacts low, he said.

Although optimistically called the “Portland Streetcar Loop Project,” the project actually stops one river short of a loop. A planned second phase, the “Close-the-Loop Project,” would use a new rail bridge to connect to the existing system in southwest Portland.

The streetcar extension will look familiar to riders of the current system, Diede said. “It’s kind of the basic system,” she said.

“What you see on the west side will be similar on the east side.”

[bvpcvm]

well, the stimulus bill was just signed into law today; i hope that gets us a little closer.

[urbanlife]

I am curious if anyone has a copy of this map, I know the route they want but not sure I have ever seen a map of it.

[tworivers]

This is kind of old, obviously, but you get the picture.

[urbanlife]

oh wow, now that streetcar map is one hell of a downtown map for us.

[digme]

I am confused when they talk about "closing the loop". Will trains still run both ways?

Also, will there be double the frequency downtown? Or will 1/2 the trains go NW and the other half go Eastside?

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by digme

I am confused when they talk about "closing the loop". Will trains still run both ways?

Also, will there be double the frequency downtown? Or will 1/2 the trains go NW and the other half go Eastside?

Question 1 - Yes, trains will still run both ways

Question 2A - Frequency will increase on 10th and 11th, but too early to say that it will be "double" what it is today.

Qestion 2B - Yes, about half the trains going north on 10th will be routed to NW PDX (current route) and the other half to the Eastside via the Broadway Bridge. Thereforem, about half the trains going south on 11th will be routed to SoWa (current route), the other half to the Eastside via the new bridge (eventurally)

[MR. Cosmopolitan]

I don't think it would double, Lloyd and east side still are quite empty, I think this would be more a way of gibing a big impulse to development by increasing the value of land in the area; as it happened in the Pearl. Of course this will no be the only thing that will be done to increase land values in the area, I think they would also do in the future other things like demolishing viaducts burying the train tracks in the east side, building parks, whitening sidewalks and burying the highway; the streetcar would be a good way to start because it would provide mass transit as well.

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by MR. Cosmopolitan

I don't think it would double, Lloyd and east side still are quite empty, I think this would be more a way of gibing a big impulse to development by increasing the value of land in the area; as it happened in the Pearl. Of course this will no be the only thing that will be done to increase land values in the area, I think they would also do in the future other things like demolishing viaducts burying the train tracks in the east side, building parks, whitening sidewalks and burying the highway; the streetcar would be a good way to start because it would provide mass transit as well.

yep

I think the city will prob have to finish up SOWA before moving on to it tho...

[65MAX]

No, not really. Once the market picks up again, SOWA and Lloyd can develop simultaneously. Development in the Pearl didn't stop SOWA's progress... it's not either/or. Portland's metro area population is still increasing by 50,000 people a year. They have to live somewhere, preferably close-in and on mass transit lines (like the east side streetcar).

[urbanlife]

the biggest issue with the Lloyd is who own all the parking lots there...much of that land would of been built on years ago if it wasnt for that.

[RED_PDXer]

I think Ashforth Pacific, the primary property owner/management company in the Lloyd, has been very supportive of the streetcar, which will tax their own property through an LID. I suspect the Lloyd is approaching a point of booming developing in the next 10 years. The Metropolitan Tower is one example.. the 100 NE Multnomah office building is another, as is the complex of entertainment/office/retail proposed across from the convention center. On top of that, I'm not sure who (the City perhaps?) designated or attempted to designate the district as a "sustainable" district - not sure what implications that has. I know there's been talk of a common heat exchanging system between buildings that could minimize utility costs in the long term http://www.pdc.us/pubs/inv_detail.asp?id=332&ty=17

[urbanlife]

streetcar

Portland Eastside streetcar: now on track?
Posted by jmapes February 23, 2009 16:10PM

The Portland Streetcar, which has become emblematic of city's European approach to transportation and land use, is about to get a big boost in Congress - or so it appears.
The Oregonian/Ross William Hamilton

I learned from Rep. Earl Blumenauer's office that the big appropriations bill being assembled up on Capitol Hill now includes $45 million in funding to extend the streetcar system over to the city's east side.

Blumenauer and fellow Oregon Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio, who heads a key transportation subcommittee, have both been pushing for streetcar expansion, as have the city's local officials.

The city had already come up with $72 million out of urban renewal funds for the local match, but the project had been hung up by the Federal Transit Administration during the Bush administration.

The federal transit authorities questioned the cost-effectiveness of the project, saying the 3.3-mile extension would not provide a lot of transportation bang for the buck. It's a question that's long been raised by the streetcar's critics, who say it's more like an expensive moving sidewalk than a swift transportation alternative.

Blumenauer, however, has been vociferous in arguing that the streetcar has been a particularly valuable tool in encouraging billions of dollars of dense urban development that is transforming the city.

At any rate, it now looks like streetcar construction could start as early as this May, said Chris Smith, who chairs the citizens advisory committee for the streetcar, and be operational by mid-2011.

Blumenauer had wanted $50 million in federal funding this year with another $25 million later on. But aide Sahar Wali said the congressman was "thrilled" to get the $45 million. The streetcar construction jobs would certainly be welcome. Now the question is how pushing the streetcar over to the east side would continue the city's transformation.