Portland Streetcar

In 1998, Stacy Witbeck began constructing the first modern streetcar project in the United States – the Portland Streetcar. Since then, we have built every extension of the streetcar system, which forms a 12-mile loop through the city. 

Need 

In a reaction to the increasing costs of light rail projects, increased traffic congestion, and the need to revive downtown areas, the City of Portland began planning to revitalize use of the streetcar for the modern era. This would provide a more flexible rail-transit mode because the rail vehicle could operate in mixed traffic within the street right-of-way. 

These systems were completely new in every way, operating on new track built specifically for them, and operating with modern streetcar vehicles rather than the heritage vehicles. The innovation has proven to be a success, with Stacy Witbeck having worked on nearly half of the country’s 34 streetcar projects to date. 

Work 

• Public and private utility relocations.  
• Trackwork.  
• Stop platforms. 
• Bridges.  
• Vehicle maintenance facility.  
• Traction power. 
• OCS.

Innovations 

This was the first project in the US to use American-made 112TRAM rail. The initial design specified Ri59 girder rail; however, the FTA required domestically produced rail on Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funded projects. Use of this new domestic rail resulted in the design, construction, and installation of several inventions for rail appurtenances:  

• Block rail.  
• Thermite weld kits.  
• Transition rails.  
• Railboot. 
• Insulated rail joints.  
• UT calibration block.  
• Bonding boxes and studs.

Community 

To keep the community moving, our team created a “three blocks in three weeks” approach, which included creating the trackway slot in the roadway, preparing the subgrade for rail, pulng in the rail strings, setting, and placing concrete to embed the track in three weeks. This minimized city wide disruptions, allowing businesses to plan ahead for nearby roadway closures.