Tag: streetcars

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati to break ground on streetcar project next week with Ray LaHood

Councilmembers Christopher Smitherman (I) and Charlie Winburn (R) called a special city council hearing today to discuss the finances of the $110 million Cincinnati Streetcar project. The hearing had a specific focus on utility relocation agreements due to the current impasse between the City and Duke Energy.

City officials stated unequivocally that the project will move forward, and that it is common for projects of this scale to have ongoing issues needing to be resolved even once ground has been broken. Both Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney stated that an agreement will eventually be made with Duke Energy, but that the engineering disagreements between the two parties needs to be resolved first.


Rendering of the streetcar along Walnut Street in downtown Cincinnati.

The biggest question at hand, with Duke Energy, is that the City has looked at existing streetcar projects around the United States and come up with a standoff they believe is workable. Duke Energy, meanwhile, has disagreed with those statements and believes that a much greater standoff is needed.

Duke Energy estimates that the relocation work, based on their engineering, would cost approximately $18 million. The City, on the other hand, believes it should only cost $6 million based on the work of their engineers.

“Utilities are issues in every transportation project, not just rail but roadway projects as well,” a representative from Parsons Brinckerhoff told UrbanCincy immediately following the meeting. “This is true for every single project, and they get worked out, and moved forward.”

At a press conference held earlier this week, City Manager Dohoney stated that City of Cincinnati should not be responsible for subsidizing the modernization of Duke Energy’s utility assets, and that the two parties will remain at an impasse until the engineering is validated.

The big news came in the final statement of the meeting when Mayor Mallory announced the groundbreaking for the Cincinnati Streetcar will take place at 1pm on Friday, February 17 outside of Memorial Hall (map). Mayor Mallory also stated that city and project officials will be joined by the Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood at the groundbreaking.

Jenny Kessler and John Yung contributed to this story.

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Business Development News

Construction to begin on $78M mixed-use development uptown

After lengthy delays, U Square at The Loop, a new mixed-use development planned for Calhoun and West McMillan streets just south of the University of Cincinnati’s campus, is finally set to begin construction in January.

For Clifton Heights, it means the largest development since University Park Apartments (UPA) was completed in the fall of 2005. But for residents, it will mean construction and traffic detours through much of 2012 that will transform a long-vacant piece of real estate into $78 million development.

The site once housed a smattering of drive-thru restaurants and a small collection of historic building stock, but was cleared in 2003 to make way for the development. The project then became entangled in a messy eminent domain case with Acropolis Chili and Inn the Wood restaurants which did not end until 2005 when UPA was completed across the street.


The $78M U Square at The Loop development is set to break ground in January 2012.

“While there is undoubtedly a lot of work converging at once, we have phased a lot of other work in prior years,” explained Clifton Heights Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC) director Matt Bourgeois in reference to various streetscaping projects, renovation of Classen Park in 2010, and construction of 65 West Apartments in 2011.

Developers anticipate groundbreaking on U Square at The Loop to take place in January 2012 on more than 150 apartments, two parking garages totaling 750 spaces, office and retail space. The final hurdle has been financing, and was finally cleared when the University of Cincinnati (UC) signed a lease on 40,000 square feet of office space for its Campus Services Department.

The lease signed by UC then triggered the signing of several retailers which had signed letters of intent on approximately nine-percent of the development’s total street-level retail space. Those retailers include DiBella’s Old Fashioned Submarines, Great Clips and Firehouse Subs.

Growing Pains
Final drawings and permit acquisition for the project are currently underway, with site excavation set to begin soon. Developers say that the project’s two blocks—one primarily office and one primarily residential—will undergo construction simultaneously, with the residential component set to begin in late February and the office component to begin in mid-April.

Though the smaller office block is expected to be complete by the end of 2012, developers do not expect the site’s residential component to be finished until July 2013. At the same time, city officials will continue streetscape improvements throughout Clifton Heights which will include two phases of work in the spring of 2012.

“Both projects are a part of the original urban renewal plan from 10-plus years ago and they are finally coming to fruition,” Bourgeois stated. “I wouldn’t discount the “growing pains” that are part of that, but I think that was to be expected and it becomes simply a matter of planning and managing a difficult scenario with the construction and maintaining good communication.”

A future phase of the development at U Square at The Loop includes the vacant “Gateway” site at Vine Street and Calhoun Street. There, a mid-rise office building is envisioned at what would become the junction between Uptown and Downtown streetcar lines.

“Our goals [set forth in the urban renewal plan] are being met and that is certainly something to celebrate,” concluded Bourgeois. “This is a continuation of that work, and another hugely positive step towards the rejuvenation of the Clifton Heights business district.”

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Development News Transportation

Cincinnati selects final streetcar station design

The City of Cincinnati has chosen a final design for 18 station shelters along phase one of the Cincinnati Streetcar route. Designed by Cincinnati-based DNK Architects, the stations are described as clean, minimal and are compliant with the US Department of Transportation “Buy America” guidelines. The firm researched station designs in other cities, and developed a design that would be easily recognized and protect riders from the elements for the short time they will be waiting at stops.

“The streetcar project is a series of smaller pieces that must come together before construction of the track begins. The shelter design is another milestone in that list of items,” said Chris Eilerman, the City’s Streetcar Project Manager. “This design combines a modern look, while at the same time, fits in with the historic architecture served by the streetcar.”


The stations along the Cincinnati Streetcar route will have a clean, contemporary design like this one shown outside the Main Library.

Project officials say that the modular design ensures various elements will be easy to maintain and replace. The materials themselves are thin, light, and durable – allowing natural light to come in while protecting waiting riders from the elements. Each station will include a route map, information about the streetcar system and an electronic sign displaying the arrival time of the next car, as well as other important messages for riders.

“We designed the station structures to call to mind what the streetcar will bring to Cincinnati — a public transportation system that everyone can use to connect to neighborhoods,” said David Kirk, founder and principle architect, DNK Architects, and lead architect for the streetcar station design. “We want people to look at the stations and see how easy, safe, and comfortable it is to explore all that Cincinnati has to offer.”

Selection of the station design was the final step in reaching a complete design on the first segment of the Cincinnati Streetcar. In order to reach final design, the streetcar team completed a number of other critical steps, including surveys of the entire route, inspections of basements near the route that lie under sidewalks, coordination of vehicle options, completion of an independent peer review of the project and performance of a quality control review of the entire project.

Next steps for the project are continued negotiations to reach agreements with utility companies. The shelters will be built as part of the construction contract, which is scheduled to be bid in the first quarter of 2012.

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati defeats Issue 48 and votes a younger, more progressive city council into office

For the second time in three years rail transit advocates scored a major political victory in November. This year’s victory came in the form of the 51.5% to 48.5% defeat of Issue 48 which would have banned all investments in rail transportation for the next decade.

The defeat of Issue 48 coincided with the overhaul of Cincinnati’s city council. The new council includes a 7-2 majority in favor of the Cincinnati Streetcar (previously 4-4-1), and an 8-1 progressive voting block after four Republicans were not reelected. Also striking with new council is that the three brand new members are all Democrats and all 32-years-old or younger.

Still, the news of the day was the repeated defeat of a measure intended on stopping Cincinnati from building a modern streetcar line and planning a comprehensive regional light rail system. Construction of the Midwest’s first modern streetcar system is now scheduled to commence in the coming months.

UrbanCincy will provide more in-depth updates on the 2011 election results in the coming days, but for now enjoy this exclusive footage from the Cincinnati Streetcar celebration at Arnold’s Bar & Grill last night.

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News Politics Transportation

‘Transportation poverty’ predicted for Cincinnati’s aging Baby Boomer population

A new report, Aging in Place, Stuck without Options: Fixing the Mobility Crisis Threatening the Baby Boom Generation, released by Transportation for America finds that more than 64 percent of Cincinnati’s population between the ages of 65 and 79 will have poor transit access by 2015. In the Cincinnati metropolitan area, that accounts for approximately 200,000 people.

The Cincinnati region is not alone when it comes to providing adequate transit options to a growing aging population. Out of 48 regions studied with 1-3 million people, Cincinnati ranked as the 17th worst. Columbus and Cleveland, meanwhile, ranked as the 18th and 24th worst respectively.

The lack of transit options provided in the regions studied is matched by an increasing number of seniors utilizing public transit. A 2011 report from the AARP Public Policy Institute found that the total number of trips by seniors on public transit grew 51 percent between 2001 and 2009, and that seniors now account for nearly 10 percent of all trips taken on public transit in the United States.


St. Bernard bus stop photograph by Jake Mecklenborg for UrbanCincy.

Nancy Schuster, executive director of Independent Transportation Network of Greater Cincinnati (ITNGC), believes that these facts are on a collision course that will very soon result in transportation poverty for many Cincinnatians.

And the data comes as Cincinnatians face an important decision at the ballot box in November. Issue 48 would prohibit the City of Cincinnati from spending any money on rail transit for the next decade.

Schuster refrained from offering an official position on Issue 48, but did say that much of the focus has been on the price tag of mass transit, not on its benefits to the city and how transit serves the needs of seniors and those with disabilities.

“Hopefully we can find suitable, affordable transit options that will enable seniors and visually-impaired adults to remain independent, contributing members of our Greater Cincinnati community,” Schuster told UrbanCincy.

The Transportation for America report listed five best practices to help address the pending crisis for seniors and the disabled. Those practices include coordination between different levels of government for planning and service integration, promotion of mobility management, designing communities that accommodate all demographics, improved transportation safety, and encouraging community-based transportation programs.

“Failing to plan for mass transportation options will likely hinder the vision of Cincinnati as a retirement destination,” Schuster explained. A situation made even more troubling by the fact that more than 85 percent seniors have a strong desire to age in place.