Loop Trolley Work Starts in March
Date Posted: February 17, 2015
Posted In: News, Projects,
Construction of the Loop Trolley system is set to begin in March 2015 Chris Poehler, administrator of the Loop Trolley Transportation Development District (TDD), announced today (Feb. 17).
Construction will start in March with the installation of a permanent roundabout near the Lion Gates in University City (Trinity and Delmar Blvd.) to increase safety, improve traffic flow and create an attractive, landscaped entrance to the Delmar Loop.
The trolley track construction is expected to begin in late May 2015, starting on Delmar Blvd. near Kingsland. Traffic will continue to flow through The Loop business district during construction.
Contractors include KCI Construction Company for track and civil infrastructure; Wissehr Electrical Contractors for the trolley overhead contact system and lighting; and KCI Construction Company for rehab of the maintenance/storage facility. Kwame Building Group is the construction manager for the project.
The 2.2-mile fixed-track electrical trolley system will run along Delmar Blvd. and DeBaliviere Ave. connecting The Loop restaurant, shopping, and arts & entertainment district to Forest Park, with a stop at the Missouri History Museum. The Loop derived its nickname from the streetcar system that serviced the area until 1966.
The project includes construction of the roundabout, the trolley tracks, an overhead contact system, 10 station stops, a maintenance/storage facility, and rehab of vintage trolley vehicles.
On the eastern end of the trolley route, the Loop Trolley TDD is working with Great Rivers Greenway to extend the St. Vincent Greenway from Delmar along DeBaliviere Ave. south to Forest Park Blvd., with new landscaping and multi-use paths. The trolley will run adjacent to the greenway.
The Loop Trolley construction is scheduled for completion in mid-2016 and is expected to begin service in late 2016 to allow for testing and training.
The project was threatened with derailment in September, when bids came in $11 million higher than the $43 million project estimate. The electrical work was split into smaller packages, which reportedly resulted in a $1.9 million savings, and the rest of the work was rebid. Bid packages were submitted in mid-November and have been under evaluation until today’s announcement.
Opponents of the project took advantage of the delay to criticize the project at a Nov. 24 meeting of the University City Council, the West End Word reported. The city approved a six-month extension of the projects permit at that meeting.
It was the fifth extension of the project’s permitting. But that just was minor delay: Loop Trolley has gone a long way to travel the short distance through the Delmar Loop. In December, Loop visionary Joe Edwards, owner of Blueberry Hill, the Tivoli Theatre, the Pageant, Pin-Up Bowl, the Moonrise Hotel, and the Flamingo Loop Diner, told ConstructForSTL that he first put forward the ideas of a trolley to unify the Delmar Loop in 1997.
The road to awarding construction contracts has been fraught with opposition, even extending to lawsuits. The same wide variety of ages, income levels, interests, and political opinions that Edwards says is at the heart of the Delmar Loop district’s success may have prolonged the project’s development process.
Edwards knew from the beginning that general revenue funds would not be available for the project. Loop Trolley was one of five projects selected out of 65 that applied nationally for Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Urban Circulator Grant funding. The major funding source for the Loop Trolley project is that $25 million FTA grant.
Joe Edwards believes in the ability of trolleys to connect people and communities. He sees the Loop Trolley potentially extending into Clayton.