Study to analyze streetcar scenarios
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By SCOTT SCHWEBKE
Standard-Examiner staff
sschwebke@standard.net
OGDEN -- A search will get under way next month for a consultant to undertake a $750,000 study that may lead to a streetcar system along the busy downtown to Weber State University-McKay-Dee Hospital corridor.
Mick Crandall, deputy chief of planning and programming for the Utah Transit Authority, reviewed with the city council during a Thursday night work session a memo detailing a timeline for completing the study.
Funding for the study will come from $231,250 in Utah Transit Authority federal money pledged for local transportation analysis and $58,750 set aside in the city's fiscal 2009 budget.
In addition, Weber State University has been asked to contribute $140,000, and Intermountain Health Care, which is the parent company of McKay-Dee Hospital, has been asked to provide $30,000.
Efforts to advertise for a consultant for the study will begin in early October, according to the UTA memo.
A consultant will be hired in November, begin work in January and complete the study in June 2010, the memo states.
The UTA will have a lead role in managing the study and organizing several public input meetings, said Crandall.
The aim of the study is to meet requirements for pursuing Federal Transit Administration funding for the streetcar project that could take three years to five years to obtain, says the memo.
Some data from a 2005 transit analysis commissioned by the Wasatch Front Regional Council, UTA, the city and Weber State University will be used to assist with the study, Crandall said. "We will take advantage of as much (of the data) as we can," he told the city council.
Two of the transit corridors that will be analyzed in connection with the study were recommended by Mayor Matthew Godfrey while the third was proposed by the city council.
Godfrey's top corridor recommendation runs from the intermodal hub on 23rd Street to Washington Boulevard to 36th Street to Harrison Boulevard and then on to Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital.
Godfrey's second pick extends from the intermodal hub to Washington Boulevard to 30th Street to Harrison Boulevard and then to Weber State and McKay-Dee.
The city council's top corridor selection runs from the intermodal hub to Washington Boulevard to 26th Street to Harrison Boulevard and on to the university and hospital.
Godfrey has said his recommendations are more cost effective and suitable than the one submitted by the city council because the streetcar system would encourage mixed-use development along Washington Boulevard.
In addition, under the city council's scenario, the municipality would have to purchase numerous homes along Harrison Boulevard to provide rights of way for the streetcar system, Godfrey said.
Reader Comments
$750,000 to do the study over about a years time - where do I sign up?
Just what we need more careless city spending on an item that the city doesnt need and the city coming in and taking peoples homes to make way for it. Mayor Godfrey and the city need to wake up and quit this foolish spending of money in this time of financial crisis. Also I think the money could be spent (if they really want to spend it) on something better like education, crime, etc.