STV, Jacobs and WRA will serve as transit delivery partners for Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) Red Line, a planned 14-mile light rail system connecting Baltimore’s east-west corridor between Highlandtown and Woodlawn.
STV on Dec. 4 reported signing a contract with MDOT MTA to provide roadway, track, water resources, systems, traffic, landscaping, architecture, structural, and utility design and oversight for the project. As part of the tri-venture with Jacobs and WRA, it will serve as the General Engineering Consultant. Additionally, STV said it is offering planning support in collaboration with Gannett Fleming, which was selected earlier this year as Red Line program management consultant (PMC), and will provide cost estimating services later in the project.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore revived the Red Line project in June 2023, and announced that light rail was selected as the preferred mode in June 2024. MDOT MTA conducted technical analysis and public outreach, which supported the recommendation for light rail; financial analysis also confirmed that light rail would be more cost-effective over the long term compared with alternative transit modes such as bus rapid transit (BRT), according to the Governor’s Office. While the initial capital cost of the light rail line would be higher than BRT, light rail vehicles, it said, “offer greater capacity, which will be an asset in the high-density corridor, which will lower the operational cost per rider and lead to increased ridership.”
The Red Line will connect communities from Woodlawn in Baltimore County to Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital in East Baltimore. The majority of the route will be surface running within the existing Baltimore City roadway network. The project scope also includes the design of several maintenance buildings for vehicle storage and upkeep, as well as park-and-ride facilities along the alignment. There are currently three Red Line route alternatives (see map and table below).
| Preliminary Alternative | Mode | Tunnel/Surface | Alignment | |
| Maximum Tunnel Click to view map | Alternative 1 | LRT | Tunnel | Mimics the Red Line Preferred Alternative alignment from 2015. Includes the Cooks Lane and Downtown Tunnel. General alignment follows: Security Boulevard, I-70, Cooks Lane, Edmondson Avenue, US 40, Fremont Avenue, Lombard Street, Fleet Street, Boston Street. Different options being considered for Brewers Hill/Highlandtown area connecting to Bayview. |
| Maximum Surface North Click to view map | Alternative 2A | LRT | Surface | Alignment on the surface. Alignment follows Security Boulevard, Cooks Lane, Edmondson Avenue, US 40, MLK Jr Blvd, Baltimore Street/ Lombard Street Couplet, President Street, Eastern Avenue/Fleet Street couplet. Different options being considered for Highlandtown area connecting to Bayview. |
| Maximum Surface South Click to view map | Alternative 2B | LRT | Surface | Alignment on the surface. Alignment follows Security Boulevard, Cooks Lane, Edmondson Avenue, US 40, MLK Jr Blvd, Pratt Street, President Street, Eastern Avenue/Fleet Street, Boston Street. Different options being considered for Brewers Hill/Highlandtown area connecting to Bayview. |
MDOT MTA anticipates a combination of local, state, and federal funds will be used to cover the Red Line’s price tag. At the state level, it said, funding has already been allocated to carry the Red Line forward through planning. MDOT MTA plans to pursue New Starts funding through the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Capital Investment Grants program.
MTA’s current transit network serves more than 300,000 daily trips via its Metro Subway, Light Rail, MARC commuter rail, and bus systems. According to STV, many of the highest-ridership bus routes currently travel along the proposed Red Line corridor, which is expected to serve between 28,500 and 35,500 daily riders once the light rail system is operational.
“The Red Line will be a major improvement to Baltimore’s connectivity, especially for communities that rely on public transit to access employment, education and other essential services,” said Ryan Barth, Principal and Project Manager at STV, which had supported the original Red Line project as part of a PMC team prior to 2015. “This long-term project also creates an abundance of professional development opportunities for Baltimore’s next generation transportation workforce, who will gain invaluable skills working on a transformative infrastructure project alongside a large project team with a diverse group of subcontractors and local DBEs.”
Previously, STV worked on the MARC Riverside Heavy Maintenance Facility, one of MDOT MTA’s first alternative delivery projects. Also, the STV-Jacobs-WRA tri-venture led preliminary engineering for the Purple Line light rail project, connecting Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland.
Meanwhile, STV on Dec. 4 also reported that the Seattle Center in Washington state selected the firm to provide program management/construction management (PM/CM) services for procurement, ADA upgrades, safety improvements, and architectural enhancements at the Seattle Center Monorail terminal stop for the 74-acre campus.
STV will develop General Contractor/Construction Manager (GC/CM) procurement strategies and provide preconstruction support, including Request for Qualifications document creation, bid evaluation, contract negotiation, risk management, cost analysis, and budget and schedule reconciliation. The firm said it will also coordinate compliance with FTA requirements and work closely with the Seattle Center project manager to deliver the project within these federal guidelines.
The 0.9-mile monorail system, originally built for the 1962 World’s Fair, travels along 5th Avenue and connects downtown Seattle with Seattle Center. It carries more than two million riders each year.
“STV is proud to work on such an iconic piece of Seattle history by upgrading and delivering a more sustainable, equitable infrastructure solution for our community,” said Ashley McClaran, Project Executive at STV. “Increasing accessibility on the Seattle Center Monorail will make an impact in our everyday lives and aligns with our team’s purpose: making communities better by connecting people and places to a better future.”
Separately, STV recently celebrated the grand opening of the Lynnwood Link extensions project at Sound Transit. STV was part of a joint venture with Mott MacDonald, which oversaw systems construction, providing technical review, construction management, quality assurance, and inspection services for the project’s traction power, communications, signaling, and train control systems.
