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Streetcar To Shut Down For Track Repairs

streetcar
Jay Hanselman
/
WVXU

Part of the Cincinnati Streetcar system will be shut down for four days later this month so construction crews can replace some crumbling concrete along two sections of track.

The work at Walnut and Court and Walnut and Ninth will likely happen the week of March 20.
All traffic - streetcars and vehicles - will be stopped during construction.

Chris Eilerman with the city manager's office said officials understand the work will have an impact on traffic and streetcar service.

"This would be the shortest duration under which the street would be affected," Eilerman said. "The impact to other vehicular traffic would be minimized there and also provide the fewest safety risks and the best opportunity for the contractor to work as efficiently as possible within the work site."

City officials and contractors studied four options and this is the one a City Council committee endorsed Wednesday during a special meeting of the Major Transportation Committee.
 

The details of this repair option:

  • Work is permitted to occur 24 hours a day and would last approximately four days. It would take two days to demolish the existing concrete and two days to pour and cure the new concrete. During this time, no vehicle traffic of any kind would be permitted on the track. Streetcar service in the Downtown loop would be halted for approximately four days. The completed work will have a two year warranty.

Other options included more work at night with limited streetcar service during the day. But those could void the warranty on the repairs.
The city won't have to pay for the repairs because it's covered under the original construction contract.  The problem was discovered in October and temperatures needed to be warmer so new concrete could be poured.

Council Member Chris Seelbach called the special session "silly."  He said city officials could have made the decision without Council being involved.

"It really does seem to me like, here's something negative about the streetcar, let's hold a special session to highlight it," Seelbach said. "An extreme example of something that has never happened before with much larger projects."

While the Downtown streetcar loop will be closed, the city intends to operate the Over-the-Rhine loop during construction.

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.