By Frank on February 24, 2009
Via STB, I’m glad to see the Bellevue City Council has chosen the Bellevue Way alignment. I’m still pretty concerned about the potential for Eastsiders to fight this, however. It strikes me that the Bellevue Way alignment will probably be as controversial as the MLK alignment for Central Link, with the difference being that the property owners along Bellevue Way can afford more high-priced lawyers. We’ll see.
Posted in kcmetro, sr509
By Frank on February 6, 2009
Press release here. Lots of good stuff. Heartening to see a transit agency adding service while so many others are shriveling up and cutting back.
Note that these are not the planned ST2 improvements, those will come in the spring.
Posted in sr509
By Frank on December 9, 2008
Sound Transit Press Release:
The University Link light rail extension moved closer to construction today as six bids on the first major construction contract came in below cost estimates. Condon Johnson & Associates, Inc. is the apparent low bidder with a $19.4 million bid to prepare the area where a tunnel boring machine will pass beneath Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, with a bid 34 percent below the $29.6 million engineers’ estimate.
Obviously this is a single data point, but it’s in line with my prediction from last month that construction companies with more time on their hands — due to the construction downturn — would start bidding down the costs.
Posted in sr509
By Frank on December 3, 2008
…collect $3.5 million:
McCartan’s testimony in King County Superior Court came as a result of a lawsuit filed in August by Rachel Ogle of Snohomish, who sued complaining she’d been wrongly billed $86 in Sound Transit vehicle charges, even though she lives outside the agency’s district. The excise tax is 0.3 percent, or $30 per $10,000 of vehicle value.
The incorrect billings verified by Sound Transit went to addresses around the periphery of the agency’s district, which includes the urban areas of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, in areas where residential ZIP codes straddled the boundary.
Officials attributed the incorrect readings to incorrect or insufficient computer information that guides an instrument used to help the state determine which homes are inside the district.
Dudes, this is not the way to try and accelerate light rail construction!
Kidding aside, obviously this is a serious error, and it’s good Sound Transit is bending over backwards to fix it. I don’t quite understand why the woman in question filed a lawsuit, but that’s our litigious society for you.
On a policy note, this is one more reason why overlapping jurisdictions and small, single-purpose agencies are complicated.
Posted in sr509
By Frank on November 15, 2008
There is much rejoicing in the transit blogosphere about the $813M federal grant to fund University Link. Just to put that in context, it’s worth noting that we’ve known about the grant for years. The first $100M installment came in July.
It was originally $700M, then became $750M, and I guess they’ve managed to wrangle an additional $63M on top of that, perhaps due to increased project costs, inflation, or simply increased need. It also received the FTA’s highest rating, and of course there’s the whole Patty Murray thing.
Anyway, U-link is a solid project, and it’s great that the numbers have been finalized, but the basic financial contours of the project remain about the same: $1.9B in total costs, about half of which will come from the Feds.
Posted in sr509, walkable
By joshkelley on October 16, 2008
Apparently, I’m the first to post this article. Crosscut’s David Brewster has a good article on what the dangers of Prop 1 failing this year might be.
There’s a good chance the Proposition 1 ballot measure to expand light rail will fail, stalling for years comprehensive transportation planning in metro Puget Sound.
It’s a scary thought that this really may be our last chance!
I did have to laugh to myself about the first comment: the poster in opposition to the measure wants to sound like he knows completely what he’s talking about, but he references “Sound Move?!”
[via Crosscut]
Posted in bicycles, i5, lightrail, Port, ronsims, sr509
By Frank on October 1, 2008
These are good ideas.
I think the streetcar needs to be put in proper context. It’s one of those rare modern transit systems that gets running in advance of population growth. It was built to accommodate an South Lake Union residential and office population that isn’t there yet.
Transit and population growth have a chicken-and-egg relationship. In building the streetcar, Nickels-Vulcan stepped in to break the deadlock by saying, in effect, “screw it, let’s just put a chicken there and an egg will show up eventually.” And they did, because they had the will and the money to do so. The population (the egg) is coming. It may take a bit longer because of the current housing slump, but it’s coming.
However, the problem, if I can extend the metaphor, is that in the interim you have a somewhat useless chicken sitting there in downtown Seattle for all to see. And so people naturally ask, “why did our elected officials put that chicken there? And while we’re at it, what other chickens are they talking about building? Do we really need them?”
This line of thinking naturally makes people chicken-averse, and as such, undermines support for the whole chicken-building enterprise known as “Sound Transit.” And that’s a problem. Voters see empty streetcars moving back and forth on Westlake, and wonder why we spent money on them (never mind that the money was minimal, mostly raised from private funds, and didn’t involved ST at all).
Do I think this is a huge problem that’s going to kill Proposition 1 in November? No, I don’t. But it is worth considering when starting these kinds of projects.
Posted in gregnickels, sr509
By Frank on July 24, 2008
Okay, so I guess we’re a go for a 2008 vote. Ben’s done a great liveblog of the ST board meeting.
Meanwhile Erica Barnett is demanding apologies, which seems ridiculously premature. Let’s wait until this fall’s ballot passes, shall we? I personally supported last year’s Prop. 1 because I thought it was a compromise that stood a good chance of passing. I’m cautiously optimistic about this new proposition, but it’s far from a sure thing. We can’t count on Obama voters alone — tens of thousands of whom will probably split the ticket and vote for Rossi — to save us.
Victory is far from assured.
Now let’s get to work.
Posted in sr509
By Frank on July 21, 2008
Ho hum. Another quarter, another ridership record for Sounder, up 31% YOY.
Gee, it sure seems like people in the Puget Sound like their rail transit and want to see more of it. Too bad the Seattle Times is looking down their noses at these folks and basically telling them to go screw themselves.
Sorry to be crude, here, folks, but where’s the last place on Earth where people still buy and read printed newspapers? THE GODDAMNED TRAIN, THAT’S WHERE. The paper’s worth peanuts these days, you’d think that an injection of tens of thousands of new rail riders into the area would make them smile.
I know, I know… the Times editorial board and ownership is staffed by honorable public servants who would never use the editorial page to advance their financial self-interest.
Oh wait.
Posted in public investment, sr509
By joshkelley on July 21, 2008
I think I posted this a while back, but I’ve updated my Google maps of Link and Sounder alignments based on the proposed 15-year plan from Sound Transit.
http://maps.google.com/maps/user?uid=103428233658015669918&hl=en&gl=us&ptab=2
Posted in bicycles, i5, kcmetro, lightrail, O&M, public investment, roads, sr509, Trail
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