KCMO Downtown Streetcar

[DaveKCMO]

Geeked!

they are still welding, if anyone wants to check it out now. some additional pics i took about 30 minutes ago:

[chaglang]

If my sources are correct, this is the first significant new track in KCMO since 1937.

[DaveKCMO]

If my sources are correct, this is the first significant new track in KCMO since 1937.

it would be tough to confirm that. they excavated track from this precise location a few weeks ago that was stamped with that date, which is kinda neat. i'll check my references at home and see when the last major expansion was on the original system. pretty sure it was after that...

[KCDowntown]

After all the different elections, from gondolas to 'touristy frou-frou', I seriously questioned whether mass transit would ever return to this city. To see rails finally going in is awesome. Congrats to everyone who has worked or advocated for this over the last 20 years or so.

KCDowntown

Map of all the current development in downtown

[chaglang]

+1
Hear, hear.

[flyingember]

it would be tough to confirm that. they excavated track from this precise location a few weeks ago that was stamped with that date, which is kinda neat. i'll check my references at home and see when the last major expansion was on the original system. pretty sure it was after that...

from the kc star's book, it sounded like they stopped expanding well before the 1940s. it was very specific that WWII only temporarily stopped the system from shrinking faster than it did.

[PumpkinStalker]

Here's to hoping these rails will be date stamped as well. What happens to the rail they dug up that had the stamp? It would be awesome to either cut the dated section out and mount it on an angled placque that is by one of the stops, with a brief history of the KC Streetcars. Or is the entire rail in decent enough shape to use it as part of a bench at a stop?

Maybe Stretch can help with the welding and make us a bench....

I crack myself up.

[voltopt]

According to the Kansas City Star's book 'A Splendid Ride'

"The local transit company also showed its confidence in street rail by extending the tracks and wires of its Troost Avenue line from 55th Street eight blocks south to 63rd. That construction, which took place in mid-1947, was rare in the United States after World War II."

Page 164. There is also a captioned photo of the installation work on page 165.

[voltopt]

Scans.
Page 164

Page 165

[taxi]

Hard to imagine they could lay track without hard hats and reflective vests.

[DaveKCMO]

first rail in the ground. eat it up, kids!

[DaveKCMO]

first concrete pour this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvl0mHMgdi4

[flyingember]

are they installing track to the far side of Truman or cutting the track short and just doing the bridge span, coming back for across both directions of Truman Road?

[DaveKCMO]

are they installing track to the far side of Truman or cutting the track short and just doing the bridge span, coming back for across both directions of Truman Road?

i was told track would extend no more than 10 feet from the edge of the trench. drivers on truman road will cross some track when the bridge opens in a few weeks.

[kboish]

Smartgrowth article on development

Another article about the DT development that links to this assessment of DT development projects.

[flyingember]

their map was wrong the day they posted it. item 33 for example. you can tell by their numbering pattern they forgot about it originally. would think that as an after thought they would have remembered it was almost finished

[flyingember]

Next to the stadiums was a reminder of what Wheeler said was a great opportunity that slipped away. Pointing to a black-and-white rendering of a rail car named after Wheeler — the C.W. Express — he recalled a heated competition in the early 1970s between Kansas City and Atlanta for a federal mass-transit grant that Atlanta eventually won.

“Atlanta had economic development greater than any other city since they got their streetcar,” he said. “That could’ve been Kansas City.”

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/11/14/46 ... rylink=cpy

[kboish]

Streetcar expansion talk on KCUR right now...they want to know where it should go next. Chime in people!

[moderne]

It could have been KC again with streetcar to Plaza but for Clleavers dismisal as tourist frou-frou, while implementing the budget draining 18th and Vine which has yet to provide any economic spin off.

[KCDowntown]

Probably around 20 or so permits came across today for streetcar-related utility work mostly in the River Market area. Generally looks the permits are to verify utility location for KCP&L and traffic control. Here are links to a couple to give you the gist.

Permit to Verify Utilities
Related Traffic Control Permit

KCDowntown

Downtown development map with links to latest articles and streetview