Construction for Detroit streetcar begins

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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Roger Penske, M-1 RAIL chairman of the board, and Matt Cullen, M-1 RAIL president & CEO, visit the construction site with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan .

Construction crews took to Woodward Avenue in Detroit July 28 to start construction activities on the city's new 3.3-mile modern streetcar line, M-1 RAIL.

 

Construction activities began just after midnight when construction workers, led by the project’s construction manager/general contractor Stacy and Witbeck, Inc., began positioning traffic detour signage and erecting pedestrian fencing around the work zone.
As crews began work in the morning, Roger Penske, M-1 RAIL Chairman of the Board and Matt Cullen, M-1 RAIL President and chief executive officer, visited the construction site with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan for a briefing on the first day of construction activities.

“The road to bring a modern streetcar line to Detroit began more than seven years ago and today, we’ve reached a major milestone,” said Penske. “The people who live and work in this city have tenacious spirits. It’s that passion and love for this place that gets projects like this moving. We are now on the path to revolutionize the way we move throughout the Woodward corridor and beyond.”

Upon completion in late 2016, the M-1 RAIL Streetcar will travel north and south along Woodward Avenue between Larned Street and W. Grand Blvd. The streetcar will service 20 stations (16 curbside and four median running) at 12 locations. The streetcar will serve Detroit’s largest job centers and most visited destinations including the city’s business, educational, medical, cultural and entertainment hubs. It will ignite new economic development and job creation and will provide a foundation for improved and expanded public transit throughout the region. Projections indicate the streetcar will promote 10,000 new housing units and more than $3 billion in economic development along the M-1 RAIL route and neighboring side streets over the next decade.

 

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