The city of Milwaukee applied for a $20 million federal grant to extend the streetcar line approximately 1.2 miles to the new Milwaukee Bucks arena.
The new line would build a track between the Milwaukee Intermodal Station on St. Paul Avenue north to Fourth Street and Highland Avenue.
The city will find out in mid-September if the grant is approved.
Ghassan Korban, commissioner of the Department of Public Works, said the city is confident the grant will be approved.
“Overall, we’re obviously excited for this opportunity to get closer. As we’ve always stated, the original route of 2.1 miles needs an extension for it to be meaningful,” Korban said. “This gets us closer to the Bronzeville neighborhood, or to Walker’s Point, one mile at a time.”
The city applied for the grant Thursday through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program. In October, the city received a $14.2 million TIGER grant that is being used for the lakefront line.
In 2015, the common council approved the $124 million downtown streetcar project.
The cost to build the system will be paid for with about $65 million in federal funds and about $59 million from tax incremental financing districts.
If this latest TIGER grant is awarded, the city will have to match the grant with $20 million, which could possibly be paid for with money generated through the Bucks tax incremental financing district, said Rocky Marcoux, commissioner of the department of city development.
The city is expected to hire a construction manager and general contractor for phase one of the downtown streetcar project and the lakefront line extension in June. Construction for phase one is expected to start in late summer 2016, and continue through 2017 and into 2018.
