Neighborhood Notes

The PDC is expected to approve $5M for final engineering of the eastside streetcar extension, even though the Federal government hasn't approved the money to build it.

This article from the Oregonian gives some details of the politics involved in getting the Feds to approve $75M for the project. At present, it's held up because the Bush Administration favors buses. In February, the Administration gave tentative approval for $50M, but its uncertain when delivery will occur, possibly after the new administration takes office.

The reason for moving forward without receiving the federal money is to prevent cost increase due to automatic inflation adjustments in the contract. At present, every month of delay costs the city $500K in automatic inflation adjustments.

The project is expected to be completed in 2011.