John Schneider

So are they building north of Central Parkway first, i.e. the "OTR loop"? And 6 MONTHS between substantial completion of all work and the start of passenger service? WTH? yes, OTR is first; I'll get more details, but I'd imagine its FTA safety and security certification I would imagine they would start from the car barn ^ 12th and Elm

^ Couple of things: (1) Cranley isn't going to win. He's already losing some important corporate support because people realize there is nothing there. (2) Even if he did win, he can't stop it. We've signed a contract with the Feds and won a jointly-directed TIGR grant from DOT, EPA and HUD. So if Cincinnati wants to apply for another grant in the next three years that any of those departments has anything to do with, he won't stop the project. (3) We'll complete a construction contract tomorrow that will make the $72 million breakup charge that the City Manager estimated on April 29th much, much larger. I think as Cincinnatians come to understand this, Cranley will seem like he doesn't know what he is talking about.

First thing is the demo of the building now on the maintenance site, followed by the construction of the new building. The first part of the trackwork is alteration of the sewer inlets around stops. Dunno what the lead time is on getting rail. I don't think we'll see any rail go down until fall or winter.

^ Contract will be fully executed on Monday. Pre-construction meeting early next week. It's definitely a go.

I attended the bid opening that took place a week ago and have been asking around and learning more since then. Here's what happened: I entered a large conference room in the city's purchasing department and took a seat in the back row. There were maybe three dozen men and women there, generally contractor-types. An earnest city employee walks in with a big box and opens it. He announces what the bidding is for and starts opening a bunch of FedEx-type packages. Contractors were able to bid on the entire job, or they could bid on one of its five divisions. The reader, for lack of a better word, opened the first envelope. He confirmed that is was in good order ... "ABC Contractor has a bond, the form is correct, etc." When either the first or second bid was read aloud, a woman seated near the front said something like, "We didn't bid on that." Everyone laughed. Another couple of bids were opened that may have been disqualified because they were only submitted in electronic form. The "number" was not printed on the form as the city requires. Which seems reasonable to me. I mean, if you're going to read bids publicly, you need to have something to read. Anyway, whether these contractors' bids were eventually honored, I dunno. The three GC's who submitted bids each had an assignment clause under which they each agreed to charge the city a markup of 5% on any subcontractors which had independent low bids, which the city has the right to assign to the GC as substitutes for the sub the GC originally teamed with. it may be the case that for some major items, perhaps signals and electric gear, that only one sub bid. If so, this is a market failure. What I'm hearing is that if you look at the lowest prices in each component division and add them all up, you get very close to what the city has estimated. So there is a path forward. My take is that this was a failed bid process. Here's why: something like 80 companies downloaded the bid package from the city's web site, so there was quite a bit of initial interest in the project. But only three GC's bid on it. Which means to me that there was something in the bid package or in the nature of the job that caused fewer companies to bid and bid aggressively. I've heard some reasonable guesses as to why so many bidders didn't bid. But I'm not going to speculate. I suspect the job seems risky to large, out-of-town contractors who know little about Cincinnati, and this may explain why the local team's bid was so much lower. But when you have a mayor candidate and several council candidates going around saying the project should be stopped, that has a chilling effect. Even if there are contract protections that would make the contractors whole in the event of a cancellation -- which I no longer believe is possible -- fewer companies want to mobilize for a job that they think could be ended midway through. Could be bad for the company's reputation. And there's plenty of work out there right now. Anyway, my take is that this situation is manageable. The city administration is moving ahead. And Roxanne Qualls assured me today that she stands behind the project but wants to ensure we're getting the best pricing from the best contractor team available. This project has met every challenge so far, and it will meet this one too.

According to Smitherman, Amy Murray, and Cranley, that's exactly what they want to do and plan to do if they are elected ^ And because of that, I'm sure each contractor added a significant risk premium to its bid.

^ Thinking it should turn east off northbound Vine onto Hollister to Auburn to Euclid and Corryville beyond. Might want to use the Vine/Euclid pair rather than the Jefferson/Vine pair. We'll also need a cross-Clifton line from Hughes Corner to DeDales Corner and beyond.

That's what we said about PG, then Smitherman/700wlw/55krc got to him Dunno about Smiterman, but PG Sittenfeld was a streetcar opponent at the time he was circulating his petitions for City Council, even though he convinced a lot of people that he wasn't. That was way before talk radio got to him.

Any idea how involved CAF will be in the design of the car barn? I doubt it. The car barn has been designed for a while. I know they traveled to at least Portland to check out the one (now two) they have there. It's a handsome building. Had to pass historic district muster. Demolition of the block building at the SW corner of Race and Henry will be the first act of the contractor selected to construct the line.

This might just be pandering to both sides - he's been in politics a while. One of the most hotly debated issues in Cincinnati has been the citys planned $128 million, 3.8-mile streetcar line, which might be expanded if the first phase proves successful. The voters have twice given it the go-ahead and I respect that. I wouldnt change it at this point, Mann said. But its something that should be carefully looked at every step of the way. http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/local_news/After-long-absence-David-Mann-seeks-return-to-Cincinnati-City-Council He told me that he voted "No" on Issue 48. He's going to Seattle in a couple of months, and so I asked him to check out the streetcar there. He just doesn't know much about it, like most Cincinnatians. I've known him for many years, since college. He's a totally solid guy. I hope he wins.

This would be a good time to read Jake Mecklenborg's book on our unfinished subway. The similarities between what happened then and what's happening now are striking. Basically, ginned-up charges against a new form of rail were used then, much as they are being employed today, as a wedge issue to gain control of City Hall.

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If you get past the headline, it's a good story for us.

It sort of defies the conventional practice of politicians announcing good news on a Monday -- so it can stay in the news cycle for an entire week -- and dropping bad news on a Friday afternoon so hopefully people will have forgotten about it by the time Monday arrives. But here in Cincinnati, with a local media establishment that's overtly hostile to Mayor Mallory and the streetcar, maybe it makes sense to announce something like this on a Friday and deprive the naysayers their red meat. You're reading too much into this. City Manager was out of town early this week, and I'm sure they didn't want to step on the news surrounding yesterday's groundbreaking for the Dunnhumby headquarters. The Duke settlement news was leaking out, and it wouldn't have held until Monday. Too bad Cranley's reactive news conference has to occur late on a Friday though.

Governor Mallory sounds pretty good to me.

So can we quit worrying for a while? For a few days anyway? Construction bids due one week from today.

^ Truer words have never been spoken. Today at least.

^ The problem is, since Portland doubled its miles of streetcar track to 15 from 8 without adding any more cars, the headways have gone to something like 17 minutes at peak from under ten. So what used to be a real convenient thing is now kind of a pain. And it's affecting ridership. Portland's first new car was delivered this week and several more are supposed to arrive this spring. But the sure way to sour people on a new streetcar line is open it with too few vehicles. I doubt vehicle delivery will be a problem. CAF is very experienced. Cincinnati is a small order for them.

All of this is good for us long-term. For example, just wait until all these people show up at the hearings on Duke's rate increase next month and find the streetcar is not to blame for it. It will be like the hearing at City Hall last May when Cranley got a bunch of citizens to come down to City Hall to complain that the streetcar was stealing gobs of money from neighborhood programs. Turns out, that wasn't the case. And a lot of people probably felt they had been used. They just keep doubling-down on the anti-streetcar talk. They have made a massive wrong-way bet. It will make our jobs easier down the road.

Trying to operate with half the complement of vehicles is really screwing up Portland's system right now.

Roxanne Qualls is challenging the city administration to complete the streetcar by the All-Star Game. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2013/01/31/qualls-build-streetcar-in-time-for.html However, this is not the big news that's coming.

It's all good ...

^ Second and Third Streets were set up for light rail when FWW was rebuilt in the late-1990's.

Another: Kay Bailey Hutchinson, just-retired US Senator from Texas. A rail supporter. How else do you think Dallas, Houston and Austin have been able to build all that rail? By the way, sounds like San Antonio's streetcar had a major breadkthrough yesterday allowing it to start soon.

I suspect that the city, Duke, the Reds and the downtown business community are now, or soon will be, looking at all of these facts and comparing notes. One thing the city could do is split the project into two parts. Start the OTR piece in a couple of months (bids are due February 8th) and then start a second build somewhere in the CBD where there are the fewest underground conflicts and go from there. The great thing about Cincinnati is that we always seem to align our interests and pull together toward a common objective when a deadline is staring us in the face. A few examples: * Getting Riverfront Stadium finished in time for the 1970 All-Star Game. Actually this isn't a great example because the accelerants they put in the garage concrete caused it to deteriorate faster than it should have. On the other hand, it was the need to spend $75 to $100 million in the mid-1990's to completely rebuild the garage that was the impetus for the new stadiums and with them, as happy by-products, Fort Washington Way and The Banks. * Completing Sawyer Point and Bicentennial Commons in time for the 1988 Bicentennial. * Completing FWW in time for the opening of Paul Brown Stadium. Nobody said this could be done. In fact, the first estimate from city bureaucrats, since thankfully retired, was that it would take fifteen or so years. We did it in five. * Opening Washington Park and getting all the downtown sidewalks repaired in time for the World Choir Games. None of this stuff was perfect. For example, not all of the elevators worked when Riverfront first opened. But they all got done. And I think the streetcar will too. One way or another.