Milwaukee — Construction to Start in April
February 2017
Construction of the modern streetcar line will begin in April at Milwaukee, the largest city in Wisconsin and a county seat along the western coast of Lake Michigan with a population of 600,000, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on February 17. The 2.5-mile initial downtown segment has a $128 million budget and the first of four "Liberty" model streetcars from Brookville Equipment of Pennsylvania is to arrive in December 2017. Steel rails for the project will be delivered in March.
Laying the track on city streets will begin on West St. Paul Ave. in early April, officials announced during a streetcar committee meeting at City Hall. West of the Milwaukee River track laying will start on St. Paul, then continue on Broadway, and will move along the planned route for the rest of 2017 and into 2018.
Contractors told attendees that the work will be quite similar to normal road construction, so should be no more disruptive.
Almost five hundred 80-foot-long "sticks" of rail will be delivered at five locations along the route, where they will be welded into continuous piecs of up to 320 feet in length before being installed.
In only a few places will entire streets have to be closed, and in such cases should not take longer than four to six weeks.
Overhead wire installation will follow the track construction.
The City also announced issuance of a Request for Proposals for a firm to operate the streetcar line.
The streetecars should start carryiing passengers on the downtown route in fall 2018, and followed by the lakefront branch in 2019.
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