Ohio Governor Ted Strickland discusses the $400 million that the state received for passenger rail start up service on the proposed 3C Corridor. In the impromptu interview in the halls of the statehouse, Governor Strickland denounces those he calls “cheerleaders for failure,” and emphasizes how important this money is for Ohio and the state’s future.
Tag: Transportation
The $2+ billion Brent Spence Bridge replacement designs have been narrowed to six. Parsons Brinckerhoff came up with the following six designs with the objective of creating an “architecturally distinctive” that can become a local landmark while also having a “visual relationship” with the existing Brent Spence Bridge.
The visual opportunity, for those crossing the bridge, to see the surrounding city and landscapes also influenced the final six design options. There is also the complication of the heavy river traffic attempting to navigate the bend of the river and the many supports of another six bridges within the urban span of waterway.
The majority of the options are the cable stayed variety as you might expect with a bridge attempting to be “architecturally distinctive” in the 21st Century. Most of the designs come across as cliche to me, but I do appreciate the single tower cable stayed option (#12) for its uniqueness and profound architectural impact on the riverfront and center city. The other design option that works for me is the arched bridge (#4) as it provides a nice balance to the collective bridge design by offering a bookend to the Daniel Carter Beard “Big Mac” Bridge to the east while also not coming across as trying to hard to be “architecturally distinctive.”
Which design do you like best? And be sure to share your thoughts with Parsons Brinckerhoff by Friday, February 5 before they move forward and narrow the options down to the final three.
Options 4, 6, 7
Options 9, 10, 12
Click any of the images (provided by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls’ office) to open larger version in new window
Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls has established a new Subcommittee on Major Transportation & Infrastructure Projects as the chair of City Council’s Livable Communities Committee. The new subcommittee will meet monthly at 10:30am in Committee Room B at Cincinnati City Hall (map) to discuss and oversee “additional major transportation projects” in addition to transportation and infrastructure work.
The first meeting of this subcommittee takes place today and will give an overview of major projects like the Cincinnati Streetcar, 3-C High-Speed Rail Corridor, Hopple Street-MLK-Madison Road Corridor, Eastern Corridor, and the I-71/MLK Interchange in addition to Interstate 75 work that the Livable Communities Committee has been overseeing for some time.
Those interested in attending future meetings can mark their calendars for the future monthly meeting dates: February 2, March 2 (at 10am), March 30, April 27, May 25, and June 22. City Hall is well-served by Queen City Metro routes 1, 6, 10, 32, 33, 40X, 49, and 50. To see which route is most convenient for you, and to plan your trip now, use Metro’s Trip Planner.
The winners have been chosen, and Ohio’s efforts to land money for rail service along the Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland (3-C) Corridor have been successful. Today it has been announced that Ohio will receive $400 million for track upgrades, grade crossings, new stations, and maintenance facilities.
Meanwhile the larger Midwest region pulled in a collective $2.6 billion which was second only to the West Coast region which nabbed an impressive $2.942 billion of the total $8 billion available. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, views this as an investment that will make passenger rail more efficient while also providing better service in travel markets across the nation.
- High-speed rail travel offers competitive door-to-door trip times
- It reduces congestion on key routes between cities
- It reduces transportation emissions
- And, most of all, it creates the jobs of the future, the jobs America needs right now
For Cincinnati there are still questions though about a station location. The $400 million is a significant investment, but will still not enough to cover the $517.6 million needed to extend the line through one of the nation’s most heavily congested rail yards to Union Terminal. Additional track to run the line all the way to Lunken Airport might also prove be to costly according to project officials.
Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, responded to those questions by saying, “The state could trim costs by using rebuilt, rather than new, passenger cars and by ending the route in Sharonville rather than at Lunken Field, and when there is enough money run trains to Union Terminal.”
The 250-mile 3-C Corridor has long been seen as one of the nation’s most promising rail corridors with projections estimating that 478,000 passengers will use the rail service annually. The new service will operate three daily round trips with top speeds of 79mph and serve a population of more than 6.8 million people, close to 40 colleges and universities, and 22 Fortune 500 companies.
Cincinnati City Council approved $775,000 for environmental studies and preliminary engineering work on the Cincinnati Streetcar project that will run from the riverfront, through Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, and go up the hill to the Uptown neighborhoods surrounding the University of Cincinnati.
The approval of the $775,000 allows for the City to move forward with the proposed Cincinnati Streetcar and maintain its spot in the contest for state and federal transportation dollars that are necessary in order to make the project happen.
The first of such money comes from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants and will be announced in February. The Federal Government’s Grants for Urban Circulator projects will be announced sometime after TIGER, and then money from Ohio’s Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC) should be announced this Spring.
More money is needed in order to complete the preliminary engineering work and can be approved at a later date – a move that put some on council at ease about earmarking too much money for the project before we know the outcome of said grants. Should all go according to plan, Cincinnati could open the nation’s next modern streetcar system in 2012.
Chris Monzel (R), Leslie Ghiz (R), and Charlie Winburn (R) were the three opposition votes. Interestingly enough, all three of City Council’s Republicans have already announced that they will be running for the open Hamilton County Commissioner seat this Fall. Monzel has gone as far to say that he is a “son of the suburbs” and will probably be moving out of the City once he is no longer on City Council.