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U.S. agency gives big boost to $390 million transit project

Sunday, April 28, 2002

By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The Port Authority has been placed on a federal "recommended" list for funding needed to build light-rail extensions to the North Shore and David L. Lawrence Convention Center, positioning it to receive up to 80 percent of an estimated $390 million cost of construction.

	Drawing of the proposed new station at Gateway Center.

"It's no small feat to receive the recommended rating," Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Paul Skoutelas said. "It significantly bolsters our chances for acquiring the federal dollars to move forward."

Notification from the FTA arrived at the authority just as it was finishing a fine-tuning of preliminary plans for the light-rail extensions -- 1.6 miles total, including dual tunnels that will be bored under the Allegheny River, tying together key parts of Pittsburgh with modern transit for the first time.

Henry Nutbrown, Port Authority manager for engineering and construction, said the new legs of the T, which now stretches over 25 miles from Downtown to the South Hills, could be ready to carry riders by spring 2007.

Nutbrown said the authority and its consultants had to respond to any further public comments about the project to satisfy federal officials. But formal hearings held last year after the "draft" environmental impact statement was issued represented the public's best opportunity to raise questions, complain or make suggestions that had to be formally studied and addressed.

	Drawing of the proposed new station at PNC Park.

Based on input from riders, businesses and city officials, and as the engineering became more focused, the Port Authority and its consultants already have made a number of changes in the draft environmental impact statement put out for public comment last year and the final statement it's put together now:

A three-track section that extended almost to the West End Bridge will now end about two blocks nearer, at Fontella Street. The middle track will be used to "store" light-rail vehicles during Heinz Field and PNC Park events, so enough LRVs will be able to handle the surge of riders when events end.

The location of Allegheny Station has been moved closer to Heinz Field, elevated and modified, putting it in better position to serve Carnegie Science Center, Community College of Allegheny County and the Allegheny West and other North Side residential areas. A once-proposed, separate "Steelers Station" on Reedsdale Avenue is no longer part of the plan.

"Allegheny Station will be a gateway station not just a station incorporated as part of an intermodal parking facility," Nutbrown said. "But it will still be only a good football toss away from Heinz Field."

	Online graphic: North Shore connector

All at-grade crossings have been eliminated on the North Shore -- Martindale Street, Arthur Rooney Way and Allegheny Avenue -- by elevating the line beyond PNC Park.

By boring tunnels under the Allegheny River, instead of excavating trenches in the river bottom and burying prefabricated tunnel sections, construction will be less disruptive on the North Shore and in the Golden Triangle. The tunnel will be bored under Stanwix Street to Penn Avenue, where a "cut-and-cover" form of open street excavation will be used to build a new Gateway Center Station and connect the tunnels and Downtown subway.

During construction, the authority will keep the existing, single-platform Gateway Center Station in operation.

Boring the dual 22-foot-diameter tunnels, one tunnel at a time, is expected to eliminate public concern about polluting the Allegheny River, interfering with aquatic life and restricting traffic on For Duquesne Boulevard and 10th Street Bypass.

		'T' extensions at a glance Stations: New Gateway Center station, Downtown, and PNC Park Station and Allegheny Station on North Shore extension. Convention Center Station on Steel Plaza Station extension. Construction cost:$389.9 million estimate includes provisions for inflation, based on $311.9 million from the federal government, $65 million from the state and $13 million from the county. Length: .2 miles to Convention Center Station; 1.4 miles to end of the line on the North Shore. Cost of bored tunnel:$119 million. Maximum grade: 7 percent, compared with Arlington Avenue on Allentown line, 9 percent, and with Mount Washington Transit Tunnel, 6 percent. New LRVs: Nine, costing a total of $21 million and included under "construction costs." Daily ridership:Weekday ridership projected to average 10,942 by 2015, including 1,876 to the convention center. Events ridership: Estimated averages are 6,126 to Pirates games, 15,912 to Steelers games and 4,680 to Pitt football games. Travel time: Trips of 2 minutes between Gateway Station and PNC Park Station. LRVs would reach speed of 35 mph in tunnel below Allegheny River. Depth of tunnels below 10th Street Bypass: 25 feet. Money spent so far: $15.9 million for various, federally mandated studies of needs, alternatives, preliminary alignment and environmental impacts.

The location of PNC Park Station has been relocated about 100 feet east of the previously proposed site in order to preserve parcels earmarked for future development by the Sports & Exhibition Authority. The authority will use one of the SEA's two-acre parcels as a construction staging area and a center for hauling away thousands of tons of rocks, earth and spoils from excavating the tunnel and underground PNC Park Station.

"The dirt will be hauled out on the interstate, not out of Downtown," Nutbrown said. "Also, we've decided to make the tunnels a little deeper than first planned."

Dual tracks will lead to the Convention Center Station, approximately across from the Greyhound Bus Terminal. They will begin to emerge from underground under the Interstate 579 Veterans Memorial Bridge, providing a stub to expand east in the future.

The $390 million construction cost includes the estimated $21 million cost of acquiring nine additional LRVs.

Nutbrown said the Port Authority hoped to gain a "record of decision" from the Federal Transit Administration by the end of July, making the project eligible to capitalize on its "recommended" status for federal funding. The FTA must grant another, separate approval in order for the agency to move into final design, however.

"They want other documents such as rail-fleet and bus-fleet management plans," he said. "They want to make sure we can carry out this project without negatively affecting the existing operation."

Final engineering, consultant reviews, property acquisition and utility relocations that preclude advertising for actual construction are expected to cost about $45 million. Right now, the Port Authority has about $15 million. It's asking for $24 million from the federal government, with the balance to be provided by the state and county.

A "public open house" on the extensions, called the North Shore Connector Project, will be held from noon to 2 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. May 16 in the fourth-floor conference room of Two Gateway Center, Downtown.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement will be made available for public review starting Friday and continuing through June 3 at seven Pittsburgh locations. They are:

Northside Leadership Conference, 415 East Ohio St., North Side.

Port Authority headquarters, third floor, 345 Sixth Ave., Downtown.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Library Center, 414 Wood St., Downtown.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Allegheny Regional Branch, Five Allegheny Square, North Side.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main Library, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Regional Enterprise Tower, 425 Sixth Ave., Suite 2500, Downtown.

City of Pittsburgh Planning Department, fourth floor, 200 Ross Street, Downtown.