Waterfront Streetcar update

Is there hope for a compromise?

Aerial view of the proposed Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Garden

The news today revolves around an idea to extend the streetcar tracks a few blocks, allowing it to run through the SAM's sculpture park, and that the maintenance barn be sited at that farther location.

SAM's website is officially taking a pro-streetcar stance, although there are no partnership offers on the table, as SAM stands firm in its decision to raze the maintenance barn and begin construction this fall.

Important note: To answer the question, what's the big deal about the barn? I have included bits from today's Seattle Times that explain the special features of the trolley barn.
================================================

SAM hopes to begin construction this fall where the barn now sits.

City and county officials, appreciating public support behind both the trolley and the sculpture park, will consider the conflict at a Regional Transit Committee meeting March 30.

Platforms and pits

It is not the shell of the maintenance barn that makes replacing it expensive, but rather its guts.
Fundamental to the facility are its concrete platforms, thick enough to support heavy cranes that lift the streetcar off its wheels, a process necessary for maintenance. The barn also has two pits where workers inspect and adjust brakes from the underside, part of daily maintenance. Also fundamental is an overhead power-supply network, necessary because the cars run on electricity.

"The notion that we can build a quick-and-dirty fix is a fallacy," Desmond said. "Any temporary replacement still would have to be a substantial maintenance facility."

It would cost several million dollars, although Metro officials are reluctant to estimate because cost would depend on a number of factors, such as the price of the land. Riley said laying new track, also necessary for any replacement facility, is expensive at about $1,000 a linear foot.

"The farther we have to move it, the more track we have to lay, the greater the cost," she said.

SAM officials wonder whether a replacement barn could be built a couple blocks north, on the opposite side of the sculpture park. They say the streetcars could run beneath the same bridge as will the Burlington Northern trains.

A 1999 museum fund-raising brochure, touting the project as "Seattle's last chance for a downtown park," includes a photo of a vintage streetcar, proclaiming that the trolley would provide transportation to the park.

SAM director Mimi Gardner Gates has written an open letter on the museum's Web site (www.seattleartmuseum.org) that reiterates the museum's support for the streetcar: "SAM believes that like art, the streetcar enriches the experience and charm of our waterfront community," she wrote.

-- Seattle Times, 03/23/05


SAM has always envisioned visitors arriving by streetcar —In fact, the existing location at Broad Street is incorporated into the design of the park and the design allows for the possible extension of the streetcar line north through the park.

SAM continues to support the efforts of the City and King County to identify a solution for relocating the streetcar maintenance facility currently on the site so that the streetcar remains up and running.

-- Seattle Art Museum Website