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:<\/p>\n
Thursday, July 8, 2010 might go down in history as the day that the long-planned Cincinnati Streetcar project finally became reality.\u00c2\u00a0 While no construction has begun, city officials did successfully land $25 million through the federal government’s Urban Circulators grant program.\u00c2\u00a0 The additional money means that the project now has $114.5 million of the total $128 million needed, making it approximately 90 percent funded.<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 The\u00c2\u00a0Cincinnati Streetcar<\/a> was one of only six urban circulator proposals awarded money nationally out of 65 applications that\u00c2\u00a0totaled more than $1 billion in requests.\u00c2\u00a0 The other five projects are located in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Worth, and St. Louis.<\/p>\n
“This announcement illustrates the broad-based support for the streetcar at all levels of government,” said Brad Thomas, Founder,\u00c2\u00a0CincyStreetcar.com<\/a>. “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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n