Dallas is preparing to revisit its plan for a downtown streetcar connection, and a memo for Monday's council committee meeting says the existing line has also cleared a regional hurdle for federal repair money.
The memo, dated Oct. 19 and addressed to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, updates two studies: one on how the streetcar would cross downtown, called the Central Link study, and one on how the city pays to run and maintain the system.
Revisiting the 2017 route
The council picked a preferred route, known as a locally preferred alternative, on Sept. 13, 2017. The new study would test whether that choice still holds and either confirm it or come up with a different one, working with Downtown Dallas, Inc. and other stakeholders through a public engagement process, the memo says.
The second half of the work is preliminary engineering on whichever route is chosen, producing an engineered schematic so the project can compete for capital grants. Staff expect to ask the full council on Oct. 28 to award the engineering consultant contract.
The committee's forecast of items headed to that Oct. 28 agenda lists a contract with AECOM Technical Services of up to $1,096,786.68 for planning and engineering on a streetcar project linking the line's planned northern extension end point near the Omni Hotel to the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority system.
Most of the money, $982,102, would come from a Greater Downtown Dallas Master Plan fund, with $114,684.68 from the general fund. The memo itself does not name a consultant.
Federal formula money, for repairs only
Operating the streetcar draws on the city's budget, and committee members were briefed in May on options to ease that load. One idea was to ask the North Central Texas Council of Governments whether the streetcar could count toward two federal transit formula programs. The Regional Transportation Council approved that eligibility on Sept. 11, according to the memo.
