Tag: Transportation

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Project Executive Estimates Cost to Cancel Streetcar Would Far Exceed $100M

The project executive for the Cincinnati Streetcar project, John Deatrick, gave a presentation to Cincinnati City Council’s Budget & Finance Committee today to outline the anticipated costs, time frame risks associated with cancelling or temporarily stopping work on the $133 million project.

Deatrick emphasized that at this point approximately $32 million has or will be spent prior to December 1. In addition to that, he explained exactly why the city would forfeit approximately $45 million in Federal funds, and be subject to local payment of any funds committed that would have otherwise been paid by those Federal funds. In addition to that, Deatrick and the project team estimate that it would cost $31-48 million to close-out the project.

Streetcar Cancellation and Close-Out Costs


What it means is that the professionals involved with overseeing the project believe the costs to cancel will be between $108 million and $125 million, not including any of the highly anticipated litigation costs.

The presentation also included a breakdown of more intangible numbers like the damage to the reputation the city has with the Federal government, and the future inability to receive Federal funding for any transportation projects as a result.

Cincinnati’s Budget Director, Lea Erickson, then explained how those costs would be paid and that the cancellation of the project would also result in the loss of any realized property and economic gains anticipated due to the streetcar, as outlined by an economic feasibility report done by HDR Economics. That total of lost tax revenue for the City of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Public Schools, she estimates, would $237 million in today’s dollars – or $594 million over the course of the next 35 years.

The 39-page presentation is packed with detailed breakouts and explanations for these figures. It also explains the relationship of the various contractors involved in the project.

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Up To Speed

Will Cincinnati upgrade parking assets following lease default?

Will Cincinnati upgrade parking assets following lease default?.

While it appears that Mayor-elect John Cranley (D) and the new city council are poised to cancel and default on the city’s Parking Lease & Modernization deal signed five months ago, other cities are moving forward with modernizing their parking assets and bringing their parking technology into the 21st century. More from Peninsula Transportation Alternatives:

At a study session, the San Mateo City council leaned favorably toward a downtown parking plan that would vary prices based on usage, make parking in further lots cheaper and central streets more expensive; and would use parking revenues to help pay to reduce vehicle trips.

A thorough study of parking occupancy found that core on-street spaces fill up at peak times, but off-street structures and peripheral spaces have room.   In addition to using pricing to incent people to use the available spaces, the study recommended using signage with branding and dynamic information as well as mobile applications to help visitors find parking and seeing how many spaces are available.

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Up To Speed

$1.6B partnership deal inked to replace Goethals Bridge

$1.6B partnership deal inked to replace Goethals Bridge.

Yet another multi-billion dollar bridge replacement project is advancing in the New York metropolitan area. A couple of weeks ago we shared how the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project got a $1.6 billion federal loan. Now a $1.6 billion public-private partnership deal has been signed to fund, build and replace the Goethals Bridge, which like the Brent Spence Bridge, is consider “functionally obsolete.” Unlike the Brent Spence Bridge project, however, is the fact that the new Goethals Bridge will reserve space for future bus or light rail service. More from Staten Island Advance:

This public-private partnership was struck between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and NYNJ Link Partnership, a venture comprised of private companies Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Inc., Kiewit Development and lead contractors Kiewit Infrastructure, Weeks Marine and Massman Construction…Through this partnership, the developers are responsible for designing, building, financing and maintaining the new bridge and demolishing the old one.

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Up To Speed

Should Cincinnati revisit the idea of an aerial tram between Downtown and Mt. Adams?

Should Cincinnati revisit the idea of an aerial tram between Downtown and Mt. Adams?.

One of Cincinnati’s most unique and beautiful geographic features is its hills. They provide wooded hillsides, scenic overlooks and breathtaking cityscapes, but they also provide a headache for transportation engineers looking to connect the city’s neighborhoods with one another. While not a new idea, would it be worthwhile for Cincinnati to explore running an aerial tram from Downtown/OTR (near the casino) to the difficult to reach Mt. Adams? More from EarthTechling:

The aerial tram concept may just offer a workable solution for cities the size of Austin, which tend to face some real hurdles in developing any sort of mass transit system beyond that trusty urban stand by, the bus. That’s because any type of light rail or street car proposal often comes up against the major costs (and legalities) of acquiring land rights, which can be a maddenly slow process, and an expensive one. If a city tries to circumvent some of that red tape by building a subway system underground, construction workers may rejoice at the years of guaranteed work, but taxpayers often balk at the costs

An aerial tram, in contrast, has far less of a physical footprint, requiring only space for riders to hop on and hop off. Take a ride on Portland’s aerial tram on a weekend, and it will become clear that they also tend to become tourist attractions — not only because of their relative novelty in American cities, but because of the great views they offer.

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News Politics

Council Candidates Talk Urbanism at Forum

This past Wednesday we collaborated with the Niehoff Studio to host our first Urbanists Council Candidates Forum. The event drew a large group of young professionals and university students as 10 City Council candidates answered several questions about urban design, immigration, transportation and land use policy.

The first question outside of general introductions involved the candidates stance on immigration and what the city could do to attract new populations. These issues had been discussed before in our podcast on immigration. In general the candidates deferred to national policy including the immigration however some candidates pushed for an effort to increase bilingual signage.

The second question asked candidates about updating the regional mass transit plan. The plan, commonly known as MetroMoves, went to a vote in 2002 for funding through a sales tax increase. The tax failed that year and plans moved forward for the streetcar portion of the plan since the tax was widely supported within the city limits.


Video by Andrew Stalhke for UrbanCincy and Niehoff Urban Studio.

Candidates took the opportunity to use the question to elaborate on their positions regarding the streetcar. Candidate Greg Landsman (D)  reiterated his views on the streetcar from the op-ed published on UrbanCincy a few months ago, and mentioned that both an extension of the streetcar and the implementation of a regional transit system will require support from the private sector. P.G. Sittenfeld (D) said he would support a larger plan than the current system being constructed.

Candidate Melissa Wegman (R) responded by calling for more road connections to the west side and better highways. Councilmember Laure Quinlivan (D), meanwhile, called for the development of a comprehensive multi-modal system that includes more bicycle infrastructure.

The remaining candidates were asked about upgrading Union Terminal for inter-city passenger rail service. Councilman Wendell Young (D) provided a very in-depth response citing the conditions of the terminal and the freight companies that would need to be engaged in the discussion.

Three audience members also asked questions ranging from metro government, public safety to developing a sense of community.

Attendees said they came away feeling more informed about making decisions about candidates.

“I’m encouraged that public transportation has become a pivotal point for a lot of the candidates and I am encouraged by a lot of their answers,” AJ Knee, a UC student pursuing his Masters Degree with the School of Planning told UrbanCincy, “It was very helpful to have this kind of community engagement.”

It has long been a priority of UrbanCincy to better engage young people in the public policy discussions affecting their future. The large, predominately young turnout in Corryville is evidence that young people are becoming increasingly involved. For the 10 candidates that participated in our first Urbanist Council Candidates Forum last week, let’s hope your message resonated with those young urbanist voters.