RTA seeks public feedback Thursday on $50M West 25th Street bus rapid transit line

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Big changes are coming to West 25th Street in Cleveland, where the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is planning a new bus rapid transit line with an estimated cost of $50 million. Construction is scheduled for 2026 and 2027.

On Thursday, RTA is holding a community open house from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at The Pivot Center, 2937 W. 25th St., to get the public’s thoughts, and present early-stage plans, including 44 proposed locations for bus stops that will serve lines including the 51 and 51A routes.

“We’re excited,’’ said Mike Schipper, RTA’s deputy general manager for engineering and project management. “We definitely want to get feedback and make sure the public is aware the project is ongoing.’’

Participants can register at: https://tinyurl.com/3bsuefk4

Bus rapid transit lines — or BRT — include special lanes for high-speed boarding and priority flow at traffic signals. BRT lines are cheaper and easier to build than new streetcar or light rail lines.

Topics under discussion at the meeting will include the overall route design, plus details regarding bus station location and design, street cross sections, and access for uses with different mobility needs.

A growing BRT network

The West 25th Street project is part of an emerging, five-part network of BRT lines extending across Cuyahoga County.

Cleveland’s first BRT line, the four-mile Euclid Avenue HealthLine, was completed in 2008 at a cost of $200 million, most of which came from federal sources. Considered a national model, it helped spur $9 billion in development along the corridor by the time RTA stopped counting in 2018, Schipper said.

RTA followed up on the HealthLine in 2014 with a four-mile bus rapid transit route on Clifton Boulevard on Cleveland’s West Side that was less costly and elaborate than the HealthLine.

Named for Cleveland State University, the line consolidates routes for No. 55 buses running from Rocky River and Lakewood to CSU’s downtown campus.

The next stage of planning for the West 25th Street BRT began earlier this year. The project will create a four-mile BRT line extending from Detroit Avenue at West 25th Street south to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and State Road in Old Brooklyn.

Other BRT lines in the works include a 15.7-mile route on Lorain Road from North Olmsted to Ohio City on Cleveland’s West Side and a four-mile route on Broadway Avenue in Cleveland extending southeast from the East 34th Street Red Line Rapid Transit rail station near downtown through Slavic Village, to the edge of Garfield Heights at the Turney/Ella bus loop.

Spines for growth

RTA, the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County see strengthening transit as a way to help rebuild the region’s urban core by providing affordable housing in walkable neighborhoods where people could live car-free, or with less need to drive.

Rezoning neighborhoods for dense residential development around BRT lines will be part of a regional effort to create a self-sustaining cycle of redevelopment and ridership.

“We feel we can improve the bus service and the way roadways work on these corridors and use that as a catalyst for development and redevelopment around our bus network,’’ Schipper said. “It’s something we’ve really been trying to do.’’

RTA has gathered about 60% of the money needed for construction of the West 25th Street BRT, or $30 million. Sources include RTA, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration.

RTA will apply to FTA for the remaining $20 million as a grant from the agency’s Small Starts Program next year after further developing plans for the West 25th Street corridor.

“The Small Starts Program is very competitive but we believe the project will rank high in their scoring criteria,’’ he said.

West 25th Street varies considerably in width along the four-mile route, making it impossible to include a continuous bike path in tandem with the BRT line, Schipper said.

A bike route will be part of plans for the northern end of the line next to Irishtown Bend Park, now under construction south of the Detroit-Superior Bridge on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River.

In comparison to the Euclid Avenue HealthLine, the West 25th Street BRT project will not include the extensive reconstruction of right-of-way.

“We are doing a pretty minimal reconstruction focused on station areas and intersections,’’ Schipper said. No private property will need to be acquired, although RTA may need to “clip” sidewalks at corners to provide turning radii for buses.

“We want to make sure when the project is done that the street functions better,’’ Schipper said.

The West 25th Street BRT line will run through Cleveland’s heavily Hispanic Clark-Fulton neighborhood. Below are details about Thursday’s event in Spanish:

Autobús de tránsito rápido de la línea MetroHealth (BRT)

GCRTA se complace en compartir que 25Connects ahora está entrando en la fase de diseño e ingeniería. El nuevo proyecto MetroHealth Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) avanzará en la ingeniería y el diseño de las mejoras de infraestructura del estudio 25Connects para transformar el corredor West 25th Street (Ruta 42 de los Estados Unidos) en un corredor de tránsito confiable que mejore los servicios de transporte, la infraestructura, acceso multimodal y desarrollo económico de manera equitativa. El proyecto se esforzará por:

• Mejorar el servicio a los clientes de GCRTA aumentando la eficiencia del sistema de tránsito mediante la reducción del tiempo de viaje, haciendo el tránsito más accesible y reduciendo la congestión.
• Promover el desarrollo económico equitativo y el crecimiento a largo plazo a lo largo del corredor 25 Oeste centrándose en políticas y regulaciones de uso de la tierra que favorezcan el desarrollo orientado al tránsito que fomente la inversión en torno a las instalaciones de tránsito.
• Mejorar la calidad de vida de quienes visitan, trabajan o viven en el corredor de West 25th Street . Esto incluye aumentar la calidad y la seguridad del entorno peatonal mejorando las conexiones para todos los modos de manera equitativa y minimizando al mismo tiempo los posibles efectos negativos para la población del corredor.

De acuerdo con la participación activa iniciada bajo 25Connects, es importante para GCRTA que las voces de la comunidad continúen influyendo en el trabajo. Para completar esta fase del proyecto, GCRTA ha contratado a Michael Baker International como firma de diseño. Se han asociado con City Architecture y Young Latino Network (YLN). El trabajo continuo de YLN a lo largo del corredor, en múltiples vecindarios, ayuda a garantizar que una participación equitativa y culturalmente competente influya en el proyecto MetroHealth Line BRT.

Se llevará a cabo una jornada de puertas abiertas comunitaria el jueves 27 de junio de 2024, de 5:30 p. m. a 7:30 p. m. en The Pivot Center .