Portland — Streetcar Loop RFP Released

Rail Transit Online, December 2008

A request for proposals has been issued by the city of Portland seeking a construction manager and general contractor for a 3.3-mi. (5.3 km), $77-million extension of the streetcar system from the Pearl District at NW 10th/11th Avenues and Lovejoy Street east across the Broadway Bridge and south to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

The track will be placed in one-way couplets east and west on NE Broadway and Weidler, north and south on NE Grand and 7th Avenues to NE Oregon Street and then north and south on NE/SE Grand and NE/SE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

According to the RFP, the project involves the construction of track, stops, electrification and significant modifications to the Broadway Bridge and to freeway overpasses.

The city hopes to receive a federal grant from the Small Starts program but so far there has been no decision by the Federal Transit Administration; all previous requests for streetcar grants by other cities have been denied.

Responses to the RFP must be received by Dec. 11.