Panelists Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority; Cindy Moses, P.E., P.M.P., C.O.R., regional engineer with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA); Jason Waldron, transportation director with the City of Kansas City, Missouri; Bill Yord, P.E., senior project manager with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority; and Nick Stadem, project manager with HDR, joined moderator Kevin Truman, vice provost and dean of UMKC’s School of Computing and Engineering (SCE), to discuss the 3 ½ mile extension of the streetcar line from Union Station to 51st St. and Brookside Blvd.
The October 22 virtual event was hosted by the SEC Alumni Association and the SEC Alumni Relations Office.
Gerend said the Streetcar Authority has done some work with UMKC design students, and some of the students’ ideas will be incorporated into the streetcar extension design.
The project currently is in its pre-construction phase, with construction planned to begin in early 2022. Utilities are being relocated and upgraded from Union Station to UMKC, including major improvements to KCMO’s water and sewer systems along Main Street, said Yord.
“We have 15 different private utility companies that have chosen to relocate outside of the track slab and to make betterments to their system so when the streetcar starts running, they can get to their system and maintain it, and they really don't have to get in there and do anything to it for a while,” Yord said.
Yord said streetcar constructors will build the system in half-mile segments at a time, covering both sides of the street.
“So basically, we've cleared the way for them to start from Pershing Road to 31st Street right now, and it's working its way south and pretty soon it's going to end - we're going to be completely out of the way. And the plan is when the streetcar constructors start in January of 2022, they'll never catch up to us,” said Yord.
Additional pre-construction work includes a grade change on the east side Brookside Blvd., south of Volker Blvd, to the planned terminus stop near UMKC.
“In the final condition, the streetcar is going to be closer to the street grade than it will to the surrounding grades so that means there will be a retaining wall constructed to support that track embankment. That will also require some shifting of the trolley track trail and some improvements to the trail that is there today,” said Stadem.
There will be nine new stops along the extension route, and they will be very similar to those on the current streetcar line, with the exception of the Plaza and the UMKC stops, which will be enhanced stops with larger canopies and larger pedestrian and ridership amenities, Stadem said.
Also part of the project will include the expansion of the existing streetcar maintenance facility located near Third St. and Holmes in the River Market.
Moses explained that the Main Street extension project is receiving federal funding through the Capital Investment Grants Program. She said the grant application process for the project began three or four years ago.
In January, 2021, the FTA and the City of Kansas City, Missouri signed a Full Federal Funding Agreement, which provides $174 million in federal funds for the extension’s design and construction. Additional funding will come from a 25-year special assessment and a sales tax.
“So, the special assessment is helping us pay down our debt service on bonds that we're issuing to match the federal funds. And then the sales tax really is the source that's ongoing to support funding of operations and maintenance in a sustainable manner,” Gerend said.
He explained that this funding model allows the streetcar to operate without charging fares, thus encouraging ridership. Those riders, he said, will spend money, supporting local business up and down the route
Although it’s not built yet, the streetcar extension already is stimulating the local economy. Gerend said in the last nine months, half a billion dollars has been invested in and around streetcar stops on Main Street.
Stadem said the Main Street corridor poses some very heavy, unique challenges, including the change of street grades along the route from the long sustained grades on the north end to a short, steep grade from 45th Street to the Plaza.
“What we’re trying to do is introduce the rail transit system into the urban environment with as small of an impact as we possibly can,” Stadem said.
Construction on the extension is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2024. After testing the system, it should open to passenger service in late 2024 or early 2025, said Waldron.
The Streetcar Authority also currently is working on an extension of the streetcar line from the River Market to the riverfront.
Gerend said that they are looking at the next expansions, hoping to capture the momentum and energy the Main Street extension is generating. The first is connecting to the Northland. The second is exploring east west connectivity from the University of Kansas Medical Center to the Truman Sports Complex, which then connects to the Rock Island Corridor.
From a transit standpoint or even a development standpoint, streetcar is not the right solution for every corridor in town and every need the region has, Gerend said. It must be part of an integrated regional system.
“So as we think about the next 30 years and what we aspire to be, part of that is where is streetcar appropriate to scale and connect and what are those opportunities, and where do we have other needs that are going to have to be met with other services,” said Gerend.