From The Detroit News
Construction on the Woodward Light Rail project from downtown to Eight Mile is expected to begin next year, and the federal government has pledged to conduct an environmental impact study required for the plan to move forward.
City, state and federal officials announced plans for the study today at a news conference on the steps of the Detroit Institute of Arts — one of the proposed stops on the route. The study, which officials expect to take a year to 18 months to complete, must be done to so that federal matching funds can be used.
The total project, which will create a light-rail system with multiple stops to spur economic growth along the Woodward rail corridor, is expected to cost anywhere from $450 to $500 million. So far, $125 million in private and public funds have been raised to complete the first phase of the project with the hope that the federal government will pick up much of the rest.
“As far back as Coleman Young’s first term as mayor, there’s been a great deal of discussion and efforts to develop a light-rail system here in the city,” said Mayor Dave Bing. “Today we are here to announce that we’ve reached a major milestone on the road to turning the dream of light rail into a reality in the city of Detroit.”
Bing, who has been pushing for this project since taking office last year because he sees it as integral to Detroit’s rebirth, was joined by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and a host of other city, state and federal officials touting a project that has long been in the making.
“If you’ve visited other cities as I have to see the impact of light rail, you see the development that it generates is equally important to the convenient transportation that it provides,” the mayor said.
LaHood said this light rail project will become a “model for the country” given the public and private partnership to raise funds for the project to see that it gets completed.
“Projects like this cannot be done just with public dollars,” LaHood said. “This will become a model for the country: public-private partnerships, foundations coming together with the state, the city, the entire delegation around the idea that if you build it they will come. I believe that.”
Bing administration officials say the project could create as many as 10,000 jobs. Granholm said the downtown light rail project will now open to the door to other light rail connections to projects planned for Ann Arbor and a high-speed rail project to places like Chicago.
The plans call for multiple stops and the ones under consideration are: Wayne State University, Tech Town, Detroit Medical Center, Campus Martius Park, College for Creative Studies, the State Fairgrounds and the New Center/ Henry Ford Hospital area. The federal government has yet to conduct ridership studies, but that will be part of the environmental impact statement conducted over the next year, officials said.
The first phase of the project that would begin in 2011 will stretch from downtown to West Grand Boulevard, approximately 3.4 miles. The second phase will go from Grand Boulevard to Eight Mile and is estimated to be completed by 2016.
The first public meeting regarding the Woodward Light Rail Project will be held Aug. 14 at the Considine Little Rock Family Life Center.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100802/METRO/8020391/Detroit-moves-forward-with-plan-for-light-rail-project#ixzz0vTy9I8SJ