Rendering of the Streetcar's Maintenance and Storage Facility. Photo courtesy GLHN Engineering
The modern streetcar will traverse downtown Tucson every 10 minutes during the day and every 20 minutes at night beginning in October 2013.
That is, if construction goes more or less as planned.
It’s the biggest transportation project in Tucson’s history and the biggest construction project here of any kind in dollar value, according to public relations and contracting officials, so city workers are busy trying to keep the many pieces coordinated and on time and — most important to the businesses and residents affected — communicate their plans.
They have laid out a relatively tight building plan set to unfurl in stages over 475 days, and the contract to build the rails has gone out to bid.
The plan had been to open contractors’ proposals on December 21, 2011, but that opening was pushed back until January 12 at 4 p.m. City officials will open the bids minutes afterward in an event open to the public in City Council chambers.
Matt Hausman, principle contract officer in the city’s Procurement Department, said contractors had lobbied for the deadline to be pushed back ever since the project went out to bid. The city received some 200 questions from contractors and delayed the bid submission date to make sure contractors got complete answers.
“We just want to make sure we’ve identified everything,” Hausman said, “because that means less risk that contractors have to take on in their proposals.”
The hope is that questions answered will lead to stronger and more cost-effective bids. Hausman does not foresee the construction end date to be pushed back because of the delay.
Hausman expects between six and eight bids, with some contractors perhaps creating partnerships to improve their chances. The contract will be awarded to the “lowest responsive and responsible bidder,” the bidder who comes in with the lowest bottom line while complying with each of the city’s requirements.
The proposal submitted by the successful contractor will be made available to the public when the deal is made official, likely in mid-February, 2012.
The Transportation Department will then hold a pre-construction conference and issue a notice to proceed, which sets the construction clock ticking. In less than a year and four months, the tracks should be laid. Construction is slated to begin this March.
That meeting will also set the dates and times for the weekly construction meeting, during which the week’s working plan will be outlined. Those meetings will be open to the public.
Actual construction will take place in one to three block sections, and officials have asked contractors to prepare a plan to move around to different sections of the track so that no one segment is ripped up for too long, driving away customers and foot traffic.
In the meantime, facility design by GLHN Engineering has wrapped on the building where the streetcars will be housed and serviced, to be built at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Eighth Street. SunTran officials have begun work on the streetcar’s schedule and coordination with bus service.
The city’s communications team and representatives of MainStreet Business Assistance, a Regional Transportation Authority program, have been setting up meetings with local business owners to make sure they know about those meetings and about the services the city is offering them.
Those services include comprehensive business consulting for businesses along the route, said Britton Dornquast, MainStreet’s program manager. MainStreet has helped local businesses through construction projects since 2006.
Among the handful of businesses attending the November 21 focus group meeting held by the communications and business aid groups, there was no overt interest in the business consulting. Interest was expressed, however, in construction status updates and alerts by text message — in addition to via website, email, Facebook and Twitter — to break up the sections of road to be worked on at one time to areas smaller than the one to three blocks the city has outlined.
On the latter point, officials were adamant: there would be no change because the sections were stipulated in the request for proposals the city put out to contractors. Construction will happen in segments to relieve business owners, but it will not stop for long, they said. Something like, it is hoped, the streetcar itself.
To find out more about Tucson Modern Streetcar Improvement Project, call 624-5656, email info@TucsonModernStreetcar.info or go to TucsonModernStreetcar.info. Updates are also sent out on Twitter @tucsonstreetcar and on Facebook at Facebook.com/TucsonStreetcar. To learn more about MainStreet Business Assistance, call' 838-4352 or email bdornquast@mainstreetinfo.org.
Streetcar Stats
Number of vehicles: 7
Number of stops: 17
Daytime frequency: every 10 minutes
Evening frequency: every 20 minutes
Service hours: 6 a.m.-2 a.m.
Route length: 3.9 miles
Rough Timeline
•'' 'Construction for rail line, stops, overhead electrical poles in early 2012
•'' 'On-site streetcar vehicle testing in late 2012
•'' 'Streetcar in service in October 2013
' – Source: City of Tucson fliers
