Desire for streetcars drives project

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May 24, 1999Kenosha — An electric streetcar system will connect Kenosha’s new Harborpark development with its central city area, providing pedestrian-friendly transportation with the appeal of yesteryear.The $2.5 million system will be operated with five historic Presi-dent’s Conference Commission (PCC) streetcars from the 1950’s that were formerly used in Toronto. PCC standardized the design of streetcars in the 1930s.The streetcars will travel on a grass median in the center of 56th Street, running east through downtown, the Harbor-park neighborhood, the Southport Marina and ending at Celebration Park adjacent to Lake Michigan. The return trip will operate on 54th Street passing the city’s new transit center and the METRA commuter train station.City Transportation Director Joe McCarthy said the streetcar system supports the land use plan of Harborpark, a 69-acre redevelopment of the former Chrysler plant into housing, retail and public building uses.“We’re trying to make a traditional neighborhood where it’s pedestrian-friendly and on a regular street with sidewalks — a walkable area,” he said.Streetcars were chosen because they’re attractive to residents and tourists, McCarthy said. “They’re also a little more identifiable, people know for sure where a streetcar route goes and they know if they get on a streetcar, they’re certain where they’re going to get to,” he said.It was important to design a system that keeps the streetcars out of traffic, McCarthy said. The system will use grass medians or areas outside of the street right-of-way.“Traditional streetcars from the 1920s don’t work well anymore because they were all right in the middle of the street,” he said. “With today’s traffic congestion, it doesn’t work like that anymore.”An electrical system was chosen over diesel streetcars because it’s better for the environment, McCarthy said.“They’re quiet, they don’t make any noise like a diesel engine and they don’t have any black smoke coming out of them because it’s electric,” he said. “They’re considered to be zero-emission vehicles.”The streetcar system will travel to the city’s main bus transfer hub and commuter train station, allowing riders to go anywhere downtown and then return to major transportation carriers, McCarthy said.“If you live in the condos or townhouses at Harborpark, you can roll out your door, catch a streetcar, go to the METRA station, and in an hour and twenty minutes you’re in the Chicago Loop,” he said.Fares for the streetcar system should match the dollar now required to ride city buses, McCarthy said. “I don’t see it being any different than our regular city bus fares,” he said.Tracks for the system are under construction, McCarthy said, with D.K. Contractors of Kenosha as the prime contractor and Swanson Railway Construction of Alsip, Ill., performing the rail work.The city will accept bids Wednesday for the electric wire system, which includes two miles of overhead wire, a 500-kilowatt substation/rectifier, 105 poles and a 215-kilowatt natural gas generator.“They’ll take the voltage and the AC (alternating current) from the power company, rectify it into 600 volts DC (direct current) and put it up on the trolley wire,” McCarthy said.Included in the system is the construction of a 10,600-square-foot streetcar barn which will store the trolleys and provide a car maintenance area.Project Architect John Wallenkamp of Robert Kueny Architects in Kenosha said the barn will be a precast concrete structure with a granite aggregate exterior, sloped wood-truss roof and asphalt shingles. It will include office space, a classroom and a museum in its lobby showing the history of streetcars.The $1 million barn will be constructed over a river bed on 54th Street at 8th Avenue, requiring deeper concrete piles for its foundation, Wallenkamp said. “There will be 120 piles going down 80 feet,” he said.Seater Construction Co. of Racine is the general contractor for the streetcar barn. Work has just started, but the supply of precast concrete could delay the anticipated November completion of the whole streetcar system, Wallenkamp said.“It’s an industry wide problem. Most people can’t get anything until after the first of the year,” he said. “We have somewhat locked in and we’re trying to get a gap in the schedule to receive our precast.”Jack Franklin, membership director with the East Troy Electric Railroad and Museum, said many cities have added streetcar systems since San Diego constructed a light rail system in 1981.“Part of it is the nostalgia value to it and the other fact is that electricity is clean and nonpolluting, where as these little buses you see running around that are basically little trucks with streetcar bodies on,” he said. “Streetcars are more authentic and replicas of transportation from years ago and they’re actually very efficient at moving people too.”Franklin said streetcar systems seem to work well in medium sized cities with Memphis, Tenn., Salt Lake City and Denver either currently operating or planning to operate trolley systems.“It’s another way to bring people downtown where downtown areas have declined for many years,” he said.