Streetcars making waves

Critics loathe attached wires

FORT LAUDERDALE — Fort Lauderdale’s streetcars are coming. And they’re bringing more than two miles of wire that will be strung around downtown.

Critics say it’s an outdated transportation solution that costs too much, won’t relieve traffic congestion and has ugly overhead wires. But they haven’t persuaded local officials to back away from the Wave, the planned $195.3 million downtown streetcar system.

City and Broward County commissioners have declined recent last-minute opportunities to derail the 2.8-mile electric streetcar project. Con- struction could start late this year, with the system ready to operate in 2021.

One thing supporters and critics agree on is they don’t want overhead lines supplying the power to the streetcars, either because they will blemish downtown’s vistas or out of concern they will be vulnerable in a hurricane. The wire will hang above the roadway along the streetcar route, supported by poles with arms that stretch out above the street.

“The problem here is we live in a hurricane zone,” downtown resident Ira Futterman told city commissioners. “Those wires will come down.”

No city in the country has a fully wireless streetcar system.

That includes systems in Tempe, Ariz., and Milwaukee, Wis., that are under construction.

The reason: American streetcar technology isn’t there yet. The Buy America provisions attached to federal funding won’t allow the cities to use foreign manufacturers that have wire-free systems.

“There are foreign technology advances that the project cannot include,” said Michelle Simmons, a spokeswoman for the Wave project for the Florida Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the project.

Fort Lauderdale’s system, including the wires, will be designed to withstand hurricane-force winds of up to 170 mph, Simmons said.

Standing water from flash flooding could impede the streetcars. The streetcars would have to suspend operation if there were three inches of water or more covering a portion of the tracks, Simmons said.

The streetcars will run from Northeast Sixth Street to Southeast 17th Street on or near Andrews Avenue, using the Third Avenue bridge to cross the New River.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler calls the wires “the biggest negative of the Wave.” He expects technological advances will allow future expansions of the Wave — possibly to the airport, the cruise port and the educational campus in Davie — to run without overhead wires.

“We are burying utilities and power lines everywhere else in the city,” Seiler said, so why would the city want more lines downtown? “I’m going to spend the next months … strongly encouraging a wireless system.”

The city’s streetcars won’t have wires along the entire route. The Wave will be among the first systems in the country to use a hybrid system where onboard batteries provide power over parts of the route.

The battery power will be used to cross the Third Avenue bridge, a drawbridge where wires wouldn’t work, and along Las Olas Boulevard between Andrews and Southeast Third avenues leading to the bridge, said Chris Wren, with the Downtown Development Authority.

The batteries aren’t strong enough to go the entire route without needy lengthy recharging, officials said.

State transportation officials aren’t sure yet if more of the initial route can be made wire free. A hybrid system in Dallas can go up to one mile on battery power, about twice as far as the current Wave plan.

Florida officials are evaluating the technical proposals submitted by potential contractors, Simmons said. The streetcars themselves will be purchased separately, she said.

If Fort Lauderdale is forced to use wires initially, Seiler said he hopes they can be swapped out eventually.

Seiler has asked state transportation officials to see if there are alternatives to allow the system to go wireless, such as increasing the number of streetcars so the system could maintain planned 12-minute intervals while allowing streetcars to rotate out for recharging.

With or without wires, Seiler said the Wave will add another needed transportation option downtown.

“I don’t see it being a huge success overnight, but I see it being a solid success within a few years,” Seiler said.