Eric D. Lawrence

Detroit Free Press

When the QLINE starts operations, possibly in April, one of the 3.3-mile system’s major legacies will be underground.

More than 3 miles of conduit have been installed for future electric lines, which will not only power the streetcar but also provide a backbone for the corridor as it grows.

• Related:Take a look inside Detroit's new QLINE streetcar

• Related:QLINE construction to stop clogging Woodward by Thanksgiving

Bob Richard, senior vice president of major enterprise projects for DTE Energy, described it as laying 3 miles of hay, bale-sized, conduit down Woodward, with compartments for accessing or bringing in new cable. That will allow DTE to not only manage the power requirements of the QLINE, but also provide an infrastructure capable of meeting future residential and commercial growth in the area, all without requiring future road work to meet that demand.

Boosters of the QLINE have predicted that the streetcar line will help generate more than $3 billion in economic development.

“As this area grows and new users come on, and new customers, what you want to be able to do is you want to be able to pull cable and then get to it through manways so you don’t have to dig up the street and dig up the rail line so that new infrastructure is there forever and as the city continues to grow we can use that conduit for those purposes,” Richard said during a visit Tuesday to the Penske Tech Center in Detroit’s North End neighborhood. “It wasn’t just getting the project done, it was also leaving the legacy for the future that people can use going forward for the next five, 10, 15 years.”

►Related:5 things you need to know about the QLINE

That extra capacity will also benefit other areas nearby, including a new DTE substation at Temple and Cass. Richard said the work would also mean better system reliability over time.

DTE called the project a multimillion-dollar investment, but would not disclose the exact amount. The company cited a range of issues during construction on Woodward, including discovery of a sinkhole, leaky water pipes, unmapped storm drains, abandoned steam lines and an abandoned fuel tank, which had to be removed. Any future work will have the benefit of the 3D underground maps created as part of the project.

Paul Childs, the chief operating officer of M-1 Rail, the entity that owns the QLINE, said coordination among the various entities — the utilities, the city, M-1 Rail and the Michigan Department of Transportation — has been like a dance.

“It really was an amazing adventure,” Childs said.

Work on the $142-million streetcar project started in July 2014, and construction is expected to be largely wrapped up on Woodward by Thanksgiving. M-1 Rail took delivery of the first of its six streetcars last month, and officials expect those to be in use on Woodward around February as the future operators work to qualify for road driving.

The system will be powered by four M-1 Rail-owned substations, including one at the Penske Tech Center. The gray prefabricated steel structure is 14 feet wide by 45 feet long, and will convert the 13,200 volts of AC power supplied by DTE to the 750 volts of DC power for the streetcars, Childs said.

An additional 450 volts of AC power will run 400 new LED streetlights being installed on Woodward.

Overhead wires are already in place on the new poles along sections of Woodward, such as near the Detroit Institute of Arts. Each streetcar will have a pantograph on its roof, which will lift up and touch the wires as the car drives, allowing the batteries to recharge. The QLINE will push the technology envelope for modern streetcars by keeping about 60% of the route “off wire.”

Childs said Tuesday that as battery technology improves, the system will be able to take more of the line off wire, with the first such section near the DIA. When asked if there would come a time when the entire system operates off wire, Childs said, “yes, you can foresee it,” although he said to talk to the “battery guys” to determine when that might happen.

• Related: $15.5-million contract announced for QLINE operator

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.