Get ready to have Grand Ave and parts of MLK torn up as the Portland Streetcar comes to the eastside. At an estimated cost of $148 million, the streetcar will connect PSU with Lloyd Center to OMSI.
City Council recently approved a contract with Stacy and Witbeck Construction for utility and water line work. The firm will also provide construction management for the entire project.
Construction will get underway in August to extend the Portland Streetcar more than three miles from the Pearl District, across the Broadway Bridge and down to OMSI. Before workers can lay tracks, they must relocate a water main underneath Grand Avenue. That relocation project will employ 90 people over the next year.
All phases of the Portland Streetcar Loop project will create more than 1300 jobs.
The expansion will cross the Broadway Bridge, run down MLK and loop back up Grand to Broadway. The city is also working on getting funding for another project to eventually extend the streetcar across the river, from OMSI to OHSU.
Beginning in August, traffic on Grand will be reduced to two lanes during the day, and one lane at night.
Streetcar service should begin in southeast Portland in spring of 2012.
To learn more about the project and a map of the loop, click here Portland streetcar_map_may09
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