Streetcar project costup$53M
Completion date now 2020
FORTLAUDERDALE— The first shovel of dirt hasn’t been turned yet, but The Wave streetcar project is already estimated to cost $53millionmore than originally budgeted.
And don’t expect to see any of the electric streetcars rumbling downtown this year, which was the timeline officials expected when federal funding was awardfrom ed in 2012. The new date is 2020.
City and Broward County commissioners discussed the new costs and schedule— and the need for each of them to commit to covering their share of any unforeseen future costs— at their respective meetings Tuesday.
“What concerns us and should concern all of us is buying a pig in a poke. Is that what it’s called? Not knowing what the bottom line is,” County Commissioner Lois Wexler said about the project she said was being talked about when she was first elected to the commission in 2004.
The costs for the 2.7-mile service between Sistrunk Boulevard and Southeast 17th Street running on or near Andrews Avenue have increased from the original $142 million price tag to $195.3 million. And that doesn’t include another $2 million the county wants to spend for a wheel straightening machine to maintain the cars.
So far, the gap is $22.6 million more than is currently committed to the project. Fort Lauderdale and the county are being asked to come up with half the additional dollars needed. The amounts would be$5.59 million from the city, $4.58 million from the county and $1 million the DowntownDevelopment Authority, county officials said.
The restwould be picked up by the Florida Department of Transportation, which is expected to take over management of the project fromtheSouthFlorida Regional TransportationAuthority that runsTriRail. Part of the delay is due to the management change, officials said.
FDOT District 4 Secretary Gerry O’Reilly told county commissioners the agency thinks the latest cost estimate is a firm one.
“We’re really confident in this number,” O’Reilly
said.
Theincrease isdueto escalating prices for construction materials and for additions to the project. For example, in 2014, the city agreed to pay $7.5 million to create a loop at the northern end of the system in Flagler Village. The county later agreed to pay $5.8 million toward an improved supervisory control system for the streetcars, whichthecountywilloperate and maintain.
The city is relying on community redevelopment dollars to pay for the loop. City Manager Lee Feldman said the city can count on utility reserves to come up with the newdollars nowneeded. The water and wastewater funds would be used to cover the cost of getting water and sewer lines out of theway for the project, he said.
Before the state takes over, the Federal Transit Administration will have to approve the switch and agreements will have to be signed with the state assuring that “the necessary funding is in place for the current budget shortfall and any future capital cost overruns,” Feldman said.
Feldman said there is a 15 percent contingency built into the estimates and suggested the amount of money needed could be less once bids for the project come in next year.
The state transportation departmentis also takingthe lead regarding future extensions of the streetcar system from downtown to Fort LauderdaleInternational Airport and the Broward County Convention Center and PortEverglades.
County commissioners said they want to see that expansion, as well as service to the western suburbs.
So does the state, O’Reilly said. Itwouldn’t be so involved if it thought The Wave would only be a downtown loop, he said.
The Wave could be “the fundamental backbone for a transportation system for this county and this region,” O’Reilly said. “This region needs a transportation system it can growon.’’
The first phase of construction is now estimated to begin in the second quarter of 2017.
The project involves the city, county, state and federal governments, the Downtown Development Authority and the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization. Property owners in the downtown area are being assessed for a portion of the streetcar costs.
Downtown resident Steve Cook complained to city commissioners that downtown property owners will have paid seven years of assessments by 2020 “and still have nothing for it” because of the delay. He asked if the assessments could be interrupted for a few years, but Feldman said the money is being used to pay backa loan theDowntownDevelopment Authority took out for its portion of the project.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler hoped the delay would be an opportunity for the plans to go froma streetcar system with overhead lines to one without lines, but Feldman said that’s not likely because the technology still isn’t there.
“I [keep] picturing Las Olas with overhead wires and trees coming down to accommodate streetcars,” Seiler said. “I’m frustrated by this, too. It drivesmenuts.”