Oregon Public Broadcasting

Transportation leaders broke ground Thursday for the latest extension of streetcar service in Portland. As April Baer reports, the project's next stage will take it across the Willamette.

The streetcar system is adding another three miles, in a line that will eventually go to into southeast Portland. 

Steve Woods, the project manager for contractor Stacy and Whitbeck, says you'll see crews working along Grand  Avenue this summer, diverting a water main so the streetcar lines can go in.

Steve Woods "We're gonna have two crews, we're gonna start one here, the whole water-work will last about a year. We'll basically be about two to three weeks in a work zone marching our way north."

At the ground-breaking, Mayor Sam Adams thanked Oregon's Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Peter Defazio for their help securing  about half the funding for the $148 million project.

The work of laying the streetcar tracks will begin early next year.  It's meant to start running in early 2012.