KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Delivery of new rail for the Kansas City Streetcar Main Street Extension began this week. Delivery is anticipated to take two weeks, with four trucks per day delivering rail, for a total of 36 deliveries. The rail will be used on the 3.5-mile extension of the KC Streetcar System that will connect the current southern terminus at Union Station to the University of Missouri- Kansas City at 51st Street and Brookside Boulevard. The extension, which is estimated to cost $351 million, is fully funded with federal Capital Investment Grant funds and new local funding approved through the Transportation Development District.
The rail comes from Pueblo, Colo., and has recently been stored at a facility in Kansas City, Kan. The delivery will include 458 sticks of 115-pound rail. The rail will be stored near the intersection of 27th Street and Main Street where it will be welded into 400-foot sections.
While construction on the Main Street extension has been ongoing for more than a year, official groundbreaking for the project is expected in the first quarter of 2022. Construction is estimated to take two and a half years with the line opening in 2025.
Construction is being led by the KC Streetcar Constructors, a joint venture between Herzog Contracting Corp. and Stacy and Witbeck, and supported by Burns & McDonnell and JE Dunn Construction. The project is overseen by a joint partnership of the City of Kansas City (KCMO), the KC Streetcar Authority (KCSA) and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA).
In December 2021, the Kansas City Streetcar service crossed the 1 million ridership milestone.
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