They’re alive! With the long-awaited H Street NE streetcar set to roll in mid-2013, the D.C. Department of Transportation took the opportunity this week to make sure they, well, roll.

In a video posted below, DDOT engineers are seen testing the city’s three Czech-made streetcars at their Greenbelt depot. The tests were to ensure that they could run on backup battery power during emergencies. The H Street line will run primarily on overhead power lines.

Today DDOT also announced that it had inked an $8.7 million deal with Oregon Iron Works, a Portland-based manufacturer, to purchase two new more streetcars. A similar deal signed in December quickly fell apart after the Czech company that made the first three streetcars protested that it was denied the opportunity to offer bids for the cars D.C. is looking to buy. The deal was cancelled altogether in January, causing streetcar advocates to worry that the H Street line would only have three cars to work with, making waits too long to make it an attractive commuting option.

So how did the city get around the Czechs this time? A little creative legal arrangement DDOT calls a “Cooperative Purchase Agreement.” Essentially, Portland, which has an existing contract with the streetcar manufacturer, will buy the streetcars and then sell them to us.

How quickly will D.C. get them? According to DDOT spokesman John Lisle, once the contract is finalized—the D.C. Council has to give it the go-ahead—the manufacturer will have 545 days, some 18 months, to deliver the streetcars. Given the city’s plans to kick off the streetcars in July 2013, that may be a tight deadline, but Lisle said the city would be working with the manufacturer to get them as quickly as possible.

That’s not the last obstacle for the D.C. streetcar system, though. According to an Examiner report, D.C. is short on the money it will take to operate them for five years. Mayor Vince Gray has set aside enough money to run the streetcars for three months, and city officials are exploring a variety of options—including tax hikes on properties near H Street NE—to fund the remainder.

If you want more information on the streetcar’s progress, DDOT is holding a quarterly meeting next Thursday at Spingarn High School (2500 Benning Road, NE) from 6:30 to 8 p.m.