Progress Continues on the Main St Extension to UMKC

The Federal Transit Administration recently announced Fiscal Year 2018 Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Program funding for five new projects.

According to the Federal Transit Administration announcement and website, the “U.S. Department of Transportation’s FTA announced a total of $1.36 billion in federal funding allocations to sixteen new and existing transit projects in the CIG program.” A full listing of funded projects can be found on the FTA website https://www.transit.dot.gov/about/news. The KC Streetcar team is pursuing funding through the CIG program to support the KC Streetcar Main Street Extension to UMKC.

“We are continuing to complete the required due-diligence in an effort to position our project as best we can in the federal program. We currently anticipate entry into the final “engineering phase” of the process later this year and hope to have the federal funding grant agreement by 2021,” said Tom Gerend, executive director of the KC Streetcar Authority.

Early this year, with the release of the FTA’s annual New Starts report, the KC Streetcar Main Street Extension project received a Medium-High rating, which positioned this project to compete favorably with projects from across the country for federal funding.

The CIG program funds transit capital investments including heavy rail, commuter rail, light rail, streetcars and bus rapid transit systems. The KC Streetcar project team is seeking $151 million in federal funding to be combined with $164 million in local funding from the voter-approved TDD, reflecting a 48% federal funding and 52% local funding match.

Since application submittal, the KC Streetcar project team has continued to work on overall project development activities, station stop location and track alignments, NEPA/environmental documentation and development of a detailed financial plan in order to apply for federal funding. Additionally, the KC Streetcar project team recently issued a Request for Qualifications/Proposals for professional Engineering and Architectural Services for the Main Street Extension Project. The work includes Project Management, Engineering and Architectural designs, drawings, calculations, reports, schedules and cost estimates.

A full report about the analysis and design work for the proposed streetcar stop locations and track alignment, including renderings of streetcars traveling through midtown, are located on the KC Streetcar website, www.kcstreetcar.org/mainstreet-extension. The project narrative for the KC Streetcar Main Street Extension New Starts application is also located on the KC Streetcar website, www.kcstreetcar.org/mainstreet-extension.

For KC Streetcar media inquiries, contact Donna Mandelbaum with the KC Streetcar Authority at dmandelbaum@kcstreetcar.org.