Portland Streetcar News
 

Great news from Portlandtransport:

Another Reason for Streetcar to Celebrate

Just in time for the fifth birthday celebration for Portland Streetcar, word just in that the Oregon Transportation Commission has awarded $2.1M from Connect Oregon to the Lowell St. extension. This should cap the funding plan for the extension and insure the opening of another segment in about a year.

Connect Oregon is a $100M State program intended to complement the OTIA programs benefiting roads and bridges in the last few legislative sessions. Looking at the awards list, freight and transit are big winners.

This is awesome news...so is this to complete the loop, or just run a one way track down through SoWa?

Also, one step closer to a LakeO line!

I believe the funding is for the whole loop down to Lowell and back up Bond, then sqeezing back between the tram and OHSU 1.

I rode down there today: wow. For the first time I felt like I could really grasp what that neighborhood is going to look like in a few more years. The greenway in front of the Meriwether towers is opened up and you can get up close to the Atwater. John Ross is beautiful. The tram is stunning, particularly that intermediate tower. It's gonna blow up when the streetcar loop is completed. Sounds like that could happen within the next year. Wow. I brought my friend from Chicago, and he was waxing rhapsodic about the whole thing...

South Waterfront hopes to build momentum on key streetcar link
 

The City Council votes today on the eight-block, $14.5 million extension

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ory072606a.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ory072606b.jpg

Wednesday, July 26, 2006
RYAN FRANK
Grass has sprouted on the first park. Workers scurry to raise the fifth condo building a few blocks from the tram tower. And joggers pound the riverfront trail.

Portland's pricey South Waterfront district is starting to fill out into the neighborhood city leaders -- led by former Mayor Vera Katz -- envisioned three years ago when they agreed to help private developers pay for Portland's largest redevelopment project

"Things are moving along very well," said Larry Brown, who manages the South Waterfront's redevelopment for the city's Portland Development Commission.

Today, the City Council could keep the $2 billion project rolling when it votes on a long-planned extension of the Portland Streetcar. The streetcar, along with the aerial tram, is among the key projects that solved the area's decades-long transportation problems and attracted private investors.

The $14.5 million streetcar project would build an eight-block loop that ends at Lowell Street. Construction would start next month.

The streetcar is one of three projects that got sped up this spring when the City Council raised its investment in the district.

The council endorsed a new funding package after the costs of the aerial tram jumped. It includes money for public improvements that would turn a mostly vacant industrial district into a neighborhood of high-rise condos and an expanded campus for Oregon Health & Science University.

With residents moving in and condos rising more quickly than anticipated, developers and the city realized they needed neighborhood features sooner than planned. Along with the streetcar, the new deal would bring a 2-acre park and riverfront greenway faster than planned, Brown said.

The cost for roads, the tram and parks, among other public improvements, would be $195 million in the first eight years. City, state and federal taxpayers would pick up $125 million. Developers and property owners would pay the rest.

The public's share of the overall costs would rise in the new deal from 57 percent to 64 percent.

While some district features were moved up, South Waterfront's affordable housing was pushed back. Original plans had the first apartments rising among a concentration of high-priced condos in 2005; that's been put off until fall 2007.

So far, condo sales remain strong. Homer Williams, South Waterfront's lead developer, said about one-third of the condos in the Atwater Place tower, the highest priced yet, have been sold even though the building won't be done for two years. "It's very solid," Williams said.

For the streetcar, about $4.8 million of the cost would be picked up by South Waterfront property owners. (The bills will be as high as $3.23 per square foot of land.) Another $2 million would come from a state grant.

The council also will vote today on a $11.9 million contract with Stacy & Witbeck to build the extension. The Alameda, Calif.,-based firm has built all of Portland's streetcar lines. If it gets the council's OK, the nonprofit Portland Streetcar Inc. will manage the project under a $442,200 contract with the city, said Vicky Diede, Portland's streetcar manager.

Portland Streetcar News
 

The City Council votes today on the eight-block, $14.5 million extension
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ory072606a.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ory072606b.jpg
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
RYAN FRANK
Grass has sprouted on the first park. Workers scurry to raise the fifth condo building a few blocks from the tram tower. And joggers pound the riverfront trail.

Portland's pricey South Waterfront district is starting to fill out into the neighborhood city leaders -- led by former Mayor Vera Katz -- envisioned three years ago when they agreed to help private developers pay for Portland's largest redevelopment project

"Things are moving along very well," said Larry Brown, who manages the South Waterfront's redevelopment for the city's Portland Development Commission.

Today, the City Council could keep the $2 billion project rolling when it votes on a long-planned extension of the Portland Streetcar. The streetcar, along with the aerial tram, is among the key projects that solved the area's decades-long transportation problems and attracted private investors.

The $14.5 million streetcar project would build an eight-block loop that ends at Lowell Street. Construction would start next month.

The streetcar is one of three projects that got sped up this spring when the City Council raised its investment in the district.

The council endorsed a new funding package after the costs of the aerial tram jumped. It includes money for public improvements that would turn a mostly vacant industrial district into a neighborhood of high-rise condos and an expanded campus for Oregon Health & Science University.

With residents moving in and condos rising more quickly than anticipated, developers and the city realized they needed neighborhood features sooner than planned. Along with the streetcar, the new deal would bring a 2-acre park and riverfront greenway faster than planned, Brown said.

The cost for roads, the tram and parks, among other public improvements, would be $195 million in the first eight years. City, state and federal taxpayers would pick up $125 million. Developers and property owners would pay the rest.

The public's share of the overall costs would rise in the new deal from 57 percent to 64 percent.

While some district features were moved up, South Waterfront's affordable housing was pushed back. Original plans had the first apartments rising among a concentration of high-priced condos in 2005; that's been put off until fall 2007.

So far, condo sales remain strong. Homer Williams, South Waterfront's lead developer, said about one-third of the condos in the Atwater Place tower, the highest priced yet, have been sold even though the building won't be done for two years. "It's very solid," Williams said.

For the streetcar, about $4.8 million of the cost would be picked up by South Waterfront property owners. (The bills will be as high as $3.23 per square foot of land.) Another $2 million would come from a state grant.

The council also will vote today on a $11.9 million contract with Stacy & Witbeck to build the extension. The Alameda, Calif.,-based firm has built all of Portland's streetcar lines. If it gets the council's OK, the nonprofit Portland Streetcar Inc. will manage the project under a $442,200 contract with the city, said Vicky Diede, Portland's streetcar manager.

Temporary Park opens Labor Day 2006
Gibbs Streetcar Extension: opens Oct. 20, 2006
OHSU Bldg 1 opens Nov. 1, 2006
Tram opens in December to OHSU employees and later to the public at an unscheduled date
John Ross opens March 2007
Williams & Dame and Gerding/Edlen to start two condo projects in 2007 (Blks 41 & 46?)
210-unit affordable housing building to start fall 2007 (The Alexan?)
Lowell Streetcar Extension: starts construction mid-August 2006, finishes construction September 2007
Permanent Greenway design starts 2007, Permanent Greenway opens 2009
Permanent Park design starts 2007, Permanent Park opens 2009

So Lowell streetcar opens September 2007
B-town to W-ville rail opens September 2008
Green Line MAX opens September 2009
What's opening in September 2010?

Banfield MAX opened Sept. 1986
Westside MAX opened Sept. 1998
Airport MAX opened Sept. 2001
Interstate MAX opened May 2004 (but was scheduled to open Sept. 2004)

Sept. 2010: Maybe Eastside Streetcar?

Works for me :yes:

Did the streetcar extension get approved?

im pretty sure it did the first extension to the south waterfront opens in october while the extension through south waterfront has been approved(i think) it hasn't started construction yet

^the Streetcar extension in SoWa is planned, but construction hasn't begun yet. It did get a recent multi-million $$$ grant to begin contruction in the near future...

actually it looks like it just started construction thanks to tworivers for the pics
http://static.flickr.com/59/22788782...292dd1.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/62/22788782...ef1f1b.jpg?v=0

all laid out...
 

they are beginning to lay rebar for the future streetcar - tram, streetcar, building entry, bicycles, and pedestrians - portland's version of mini-amesterdam.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...-streetcar.jpg

i can't see it :(

Portland not full of hipsters?! You've got to be kiddin! Which bars do you go to, man? Maybe I need to change bars. =P

As far as being like Amsterdam - our streetcar isn't aggressive enough in comparison. By the way, when are we going to legalize weed for recreational use? We've got a looooong way to go.

My new signature is a tongue-in-cheek response to this:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=114216
just in case you missed that Seattle thread and are wondering why I'm bothering to (un)compare us to Boulder, of all places...

Any reference to the word "hipster" made my me has to be somewhat facetious. The word doesn't have such an awful association in my mind (until people start talking about white belts, black hair, emo, and PBR, at least), certainly better than, say, "hippie"--yuck. Take Holocene, for instance. That place is chock full of people that I'd consider hipsters. Fashion designers, filmmakers, artists, musicians, and on and on. Most of them are friendly, doing good things, and some of them even have lefty politics and good style, an unusual and IMO healthy combination. If that's hipster, I'll take it.
I'm one of them. You yourself have a scooter, ay?

Weed might as well be legal in this city. In fact, we should have a smiley face with a joint in its mouth.

Anyways, back to the tram... which I'm looking out at through the smoke and haze right now.

cool thanks how did you get back there?

I was watching them lay down the rails in that section yesterday.

towrivers: And just perhaps maybe. But sometimes you feel there's a bit overemphasis on the fashion too, y'know?

And aye I've a scoot.

Portland Streetcar South Waterfront extension opens October 21

The Streetcar extension south to SW Gibbs St in the South Waterfront area (at the foot of the forthcoming OHSU tram) will open on Saturday, October 21.

TriMet's Trip Planner has been updated accordingly: When you plan a trip for that date or later, service to the new extension will be reflected in the results.

For schedules and maps that include the new extension, visit trimet.org/alerts/streetcar.htm.