It’s old news at this point, but it’s worth noting here that Cincinnati’s Streetcar Project was recently awarded a $25M grant from the Urban Circulator program. This latest infusion of money means the project is now over 90% funded, and virtually assures that construction will begin sometime this fall. Check out the Soapbox article by Randy Simes for full details:

Thursday, July 8, 2010 might go down in history as the day that the long-planned Cincinnati Streetcar project finally became reality.  While no construction has begun, city officials did successfully land $25 million through the federal government’s Urban Circulators grant program.  The additional money means that the project now has $114.5 million of the total $128 million needed, making it approximately 90 percent funded.

The grant was announced by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood who said that Cincinnati’s recent $64 million commitment was a large factor in the project getting the maximum award through the program.  The Cincinnati Streetcar was one of only six urban circulator proposals awarded money nationally out of 65 applications that totaled more than $1 billion in requests.  The other five projects are located in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Worth, and St. Louis.

“This announcement illustrates the broad-based support for the streetcar at all levels of government,” said Brad Thomas, Founder, CincyStreetcar.com. “Transportation experts at the city, regional, state and federal level have all examined the Cincinnati Streetcar and have come to the same conclusion – it is a worthwhile project that they support.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Congratulations to Mayor Mallory, Michael Moore, Brad Thomas, John Schneider, Casey Coston, and all others who have fought so hard for this project. This is truly a game-changer.