KCMO Downtown Streetcar

[grovester]

council has approved the final construction contract (and a maximum guaranteed price - $61,692,898.40), so all construction activities can proceed. first shipment of steel rails arrive wednesday from pennsylvania.

Awesome day, especially since the maximum guaranteed price is lower than the estimate. Good job KCMO!

What was the estimate?

[Pork Chop]

council has approved the final construction contract (and a maximum guaranteed price - $61,692,898.40), so all construction activities can proceed. first shipment of steel rails arrive wednesday from pennsylvania.

Awesome day, especially since the maximum guaranteed price is lower than the estimate. Good job KCMO!

What was the estimate?

I don't have the January estimate, but just before the contractor was awarded the contract the estimate was...."$84 million, the project includes all work for the in-street guideway, trackwork, systems, and stations".

http://www.stacywitbeck.com/news/in-the ... tulations/

[DaveKCMO]

you would want to use the total for just the CM contract, which was lower than that amount.

EDIT: stacy witbeck was including the water/sewer work, since they will be overseeing the work.

[flyingember]

i should add that all features that were promised to downtown voters will still be delivered for that price!

I don't even remember all the features I was promised!!!

Free Latte with every trip so you can feel like a true hipster as you ride the toy train!

don't forget a homeless person on every trip, criminals taking up space and lots of empty seats because no one will ride it.

[flyingember]

A guy on the Star commented late yesterday that was proof there's people still totally uneducated.

Will be interesting to see the reaction when an aging watermain gives way under a new streetcar track. We have an aging, leaking, water and sewer infastructure, yet the $30,000,000 per mile streetcar will be built on top of it. Amazing...

I would recommend that the authority look into putting a fact section into a spring city newsletter. there's a huge number of people missing out on even the most basic details like the water services work being done with water services money.

sure, some people won't read it, but it's something that neighbors that do can bring up and that always helps. you have people on the eastside needing some solid facts showing the work being done on phase 1 to make a decision for the phase 2 vote

[GiveThisManABeer]

Tried to find this answer in the search function but could not. So...out and about last night. The friends and were talking about the streetcar. Some questions came up that I had no answers for. Why did we not pursue an elevated rail line? Isn't that cheaper and a fast mode of transportation? I am still a big streetcar supporter but just wanted your educated thoughts.

[DaveKCMO]

Tried to find this answer in the search function but could not. So...out and about last night. The friends and were talking about the streetcar. Some questions came up that I had no answers for. Why did we not pursue an elevated rail line? Isn't that cheaper and a fast mode of transportation? I am still a big streetcar supporter but just wanted your educated thoughts.

- elevated structures are more expensive (see this $5.3 BILLION honolulu project for proof)
- elevated structures require more (and more expensive) maintenance
- our terrain doesn't require it (some of which is due to downtown being regraded for streets and streetcar)
- travel times at grade are competitive with driving (not much urban congestion and supersized roads)
- kansas city was built around the streetcar
- know anyone who wants to live directly next to an elevated line? even if you do, how about a whole neighborhood? or two or three?

and just a personal observation that elevated (and subway) rail doesn't give you the intimacy that aligns with the pedestrian experience.

not a good reason, per se, but worth mentioning: all rail proposals ever put forth or backed by city or regional leaders have been mostly on the surface (and never elevated AFAIK).

our cost-per-rider -- the new federal math -- is competitive with streetcar. anything more expensive and we fail to qualify for federal funds.

it might have been possible in the 70s or 80s, but definitely not today.

[flyingember]

Elevated also takes tons of extra work to be Ada compliant

Imaging needing an elevator at every single stop

100% Ada so far is a huge selling point for the system

[GiveThisManABeer]

Ask and you shall receive, thank you. Knew you all would know.

[DaveKCMO]

800 tons of block rail starts arriving wednesday. 50 truckloads from pennsylvania. 39 foot "sticks" weighing 1,500 pounds each will be welded together after arrival, then completely installed by the end of this year.

[Eon Blue]

Rail...on trucks? Blasphemy!!

[flyingember]

Rail...on trucks? Blasphemy!!

Especially ironic since there's actually track to that exact block

Not that it's necessarily usable still

[PumpkinStalker]

Tried to find this answer in the search function but could not. So...out and about last night. The friends and were talking about the streetcar. Some questions came up that I had no answers for. Why did we not pursue an elevated rail line? Isn't that cheaper and a fast mode of transportation? I am still a big streetcar supporter but just wanted your educated thoughts.

- elevated structures are more expensive (see this $5.3 BILLION [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu_High-

From the wiki link you pasted, I LOVE this quote!

For more than 40 years, Honolulu politicians have attempted to construct a rail transit line. As early as 1966, then-mayor, Neal S. Blaisdell, suggested a rail line as a solution to alleviate traffic problems in Honolulu, stating: "Taken in the mass, the automobile is a noxious mechanism whose destiny in workaday urban use is to frustrate man and make dead certain that he approaches his daily occupation unhappy and inefficient."

[herrfrank]

800 tons of block rail starts arriving wednesday. 50 truckloads from pennsylvania. 39 foot "sticks" weighing 1,500 pounds each will be welded together after arrival, then completely installed by the end of this year.

Hooray !

Congratulations to Dave and the rest of the team

[pash]

.

[smh]

The first truck arrived ~7:30am this morning. Two more will arrive today. Somewhere around 50 trucks total.

[DaveKCMO]

video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIdWjKS2lXM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prqqqTmBVvg

[smh]

video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIdWjKS2lXM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prqqqTmBVvg

Riveting!

[loftguy]

There was a guy at the unloading this morning, who appeared to be around 70. He was excited to see this and said so. He went on to say he is against the streetcar and would never vote for it. 'Guess the folks in Brookside showed you guys the door,' and 'I'd never spend that much money on two miles of streetcar, it's a total waste!'

Again I'm reminded of how broad the gap in knowledge is, that allows for gross opposition to change, growth and the realities of the future. Simply being 'against something' allows one to bask in the comfortable rocking chair of ignorance.

I started running through the vast number of arguments to be had and chose to let him gleefully take his photos while I left for work.

Sigh.....

[smh]

There was a guy at the unloading this morning, who appeared to be around 70. He was excited to see this and said so. He went on to say he is against the streetcar and would never vote for it. 'Guess the folks in Brookside showed you guys the door,' and 'I'd never spend that much money on two miles of streetcar, it's a total waste!'

Again I'm reminded of how broad the gap in knowledge is, that allows for gross opposition to change, growth and the realities of the future. Simply being 'against something' allows one to bask in the comfortable rocking chair of ignorance.

I started running through the vast number of arguments to be had and chose to let him gleefully take his photos while I left for work.

Sigh.....

Ha! I take it he was the same guy who kept coming up to us and making small asides something like "you guys came down here just to see all this metal?" FWIW, I think he might work for KSHB based on something I saw on Twitter. But I can't be sure--and the fact he was taking photos rather than video....