25 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

DC Streetcar Construction Update, 6/29/15:

 

Median Lane Closures on Benning Road NE for 19th Street Platform Modification

Lanes closures on Benning Road NE between 18th and 21st Streets through construction

 

Please be advised that beginning today, Monday, June 29, 2015, there will be lane closures on Benning Road NE around 19th Street NE in order to make Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upgrades to the 19th Street DC Streetcar platform . All work is contingent upon weather.

 

Lane closures closed throughout the platform construction:

 

    Eastbound median lane between 18th Street NE and 20th Street NE

    Westbound median lane between 19th Street NE and 21st Street NE

 

All legal turn movements at this intersection will be allowed – motorists shall use caution as they merge into available turning bays.  Lane closures will remain approximately three weeks or until work is completed.

 

Pedestrians will be prohibited from crossing Benning Road at the intersection of 19th Street NE. Pedestrians may cross at either 18th Street NE or 21st Street NE. We ask that pedestrians follow all signage and use crosswalks.

 

There will no impacts to Metrobus service.

 

 

We ask that motorists, pedestrians and cyclists use caution as they travel through or near the work zone, and follow all restrictions. Please watch for advance warning signs alerting motorists to changes in traffic patterns and detours. All construction activities are contingent upon weather, material and equipment availability and other unforeseen conditions. We encourage you contact us at any time to share concerns or request more information at construction@dcstreetcar.com or (202) 210-3700. Thank you for your patience!

 

[KevinKorell]

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upgrades to a system that hasn't opened yet?   The ADA has been around since 1990, which calculates to a quarter century. How did they not make those considerations when the station was originally built within the past few years?

[CNJRoss]

WAMU-FM; NPR American University, Washington, DC 7/20:

 

Meet D.C.'s New Streetcar Launch Manager

Long-time rail expert says line is close to opening

 

 

 

This is Part One of two-part series. Part Two deals with residents' reactions to the timeline.

 

After years of hollow promises and missed deadlines, the managers of the D.C. streetcar project in Northeast Washington took a new approach since Mayor Muriel Bowser appointed Leif Dormsjo to run the District Department of Transportation. The days are over of publicly promising the start of passenger service, replaced by straight talk and realistic expectations.

 

But as the empty streetcars continue their test runs and construction crews fix the platforms, the question remains: when will the streetcar line open? The man the District hired to see the $160 million project to completion is only willing to say the launch is close. How close? Very.

 

Tim Borchers, 53, is the new streetcar launch manager. He comes to D.C. via Interfleet, an international rail consulting firm. Interfleet signed a six-month, $833,000 contract.

 

Borchers is an Australia native who has managed streetcar and tram systems in his native country and in the U.S. He launched the Atlanta streetcar last year, and contributed to the top-to-bottom peer review now guiding the work that will rectify any problems holding up completion of the H Street/Benning Road line, the District’s first since 1962.

 

The review’s final report, written by transit experts assembled by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), was released July 9 and includes 18 recommendations and 15 other observations concerning safety.

 

Continue here w/audio report.

[CNJRoss]

WAMU-FM; NPR American University, Washington, DC 7/21:

 

H Street Residents Greet Streetcar News With Skepticism, Hope

 

Martin Di Caro/WAMU

The movement of the streetcars along H Street has lost some of its novelty for those who live and work along the corridor.

 

This story is Part 2 of a two-part series. In Part One, we met D.C.'s new streetcar launch manager.

 

D.C. residents have seen those signs lining the 2.4-mile corridor along H Street and Benning Road Northeast for so long the words have lost their meaning. For the better part of this decade, both politicians and project managers promised the start of passenger service but failed to deliver each and every time.

 

But this time officials at the District Department of Transportation, the agency managing the $160 million project to revive streetcars after a 50-year hiatus, say it is for real. The sleek, red and gray streetcars will begin carrying passengers “within months,” said DDOT director Leif Dormsjo on July 9.

 

The public reaction? A mix of indifference, skepticism, and hope.

 

Continue here w/audio report.

[CNJRoss]

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upgrades to a system that hasn't opened yet?   The ADA has been around since 1990, which calculates to a quarter century. How did they not make those considerations when the station was originally built within the past few years?

 

The answer is in Part 1 of the WAMU series (above):
 

 

Platform not ADA compliant

 

Considering the project is years in the making, passersby may wonder why construction crews had to excavate the streetcar platform at 19th Street and Benning Road Northeast.

 

The platform, one of 12 along the 2.4-mile line, was finished in 2011. But it was one of nine platforms built as part of DDOT’s H Street/Benning Road streetscape project completed before streetcar subcontractor Dean-Facchina built the final three platforms in 2013-14. It turned out the platform at 19th and Benning did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ramps were built at non-compliant angles for wheelchairs.

 

 

Appears DDOT "signed-off" on contract performance that should not have been paid!

[Sloan]

 

 

Building the Edinburgh streetcar wasn't easy, but a lot of people ride it now

 

I recently took a trip to Scotland, where I rode on Edinburgh's new streetcar. Much like DC, Edinburgh struggled to get its first line open, and scaled back initial plans. But now that streetcars are carrying passengers, Scots view it much more favorably.

http://greatergreate...le-ride-it-now/

Edited by Sloan, 05 August 2015 - 08:51 AM.

[KevinKorell]

Washington, DC Post, 8/1/15:

Can a brusque Australian ‘streetcar ninja’ help save flawed District line?

 

An internal draft of a report on the District’s streetcar project questioned whether the city was paying so many outside consultants that it could not properly manage them. It also said that some government officials “gave the impression of being completely detached from what is occurring round them.”

Read this.

[Sloan]

 

 

DDOT seeks proposals for streetcar mobile ticketing app

WASHINGTON – The D.C. Department of Transportation is aiming for a fall launch date for H Street’s long-awaited streetcar line and is looking to introduce a new mobile app to go along with it.

 

http://wtop.com/dc/2...ting-streetcar/

[CNJRoss]

Washingtonian, 10/13:
 

 

A Brief History of the DC Streetcar Being Almost Ready

 

The streetcar line running along H Street and Benning Road, Northeast, could enter passenger service soon, the District’s transportation chief says, teasing a conclusion to one of DC’s longest-running dramas.

 

“We are kind of in the homestretch here,” Leif Dormsjo, the director of the District Department of Transportation, tells WTOP.

 

Since March, DDOT has been working through a list of 18 streetcar fixes recommended by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which concluded former Mayor Vince Gray’s administration left much work unfinished before leaving office January 2. Dormsjo did not give WTOP a date when residents of Northeast DC can expect to finally ride the streetcar that has been promised to their neighborhoods since 2002.  .  .  .

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

WTOP radio, 10/10:

 

D.C. streetcar approaches final stages

 

WASHINGTON— The D.C. streetcar line is nearly two years late and cost tax payers $200 million, but the work could be wrapping up soon and passenger service might be nearing.

 

SNIP

 

“We are kind of in the homestretch here. I hope to make some news soon, but I certainly don’t want to get out ahead of the Mayor and ahead of her expectations on what we need to do here,” says DDOT Director Leif Dormsjo.

 

SNIP

 

Passengers would be charged $1 to ride on the streetcar when it opens. Those older than 65 would be charged 50 cents. Children younger than 5 with a parent would ride free, as will people with a valid MetroAccess card, according a request for proposals  issued this summer for a mobile ticketing app.

 

More here.