The FTA estimated that Sea-Tac station might not come on line until sometime in 2010, a few months after the 2009 estimated opening Sound Transit has scheduled. The delay would be primarly caused by the late bids and the fact the contractors had not yet written detailed plans and schedules at the time the FTA report was written in June. Sound Transit has now come-out and said they don’t believe the will be late, and it’ll be done by December 2009 as promise. Apparently Mowat, the contractor, filed the schedule in June, so the report missed the data by just a few weeks.
Honestly, I’m a little it sceptical with the reasoning behind the on-time promise. However, I did go to the airport yesterday and it looked like concrete was pouring, which means at least construction is pretty far along. This is one issue to watch in the coming months.
The good news from the article:
Despite cost overruns in spots, there is ample reserve money left after four years of construction. If current trends continue, the Seattle-Tukwila portion will be finished for about $140 million less than its $2.44 billion budget. Any leftover money could be spent for operations or light-rail extensions.
Nice!
It’s the Times, so I’m probably guessing that the soundbites they’re using are a little skewed. They’re the ones that are calling the Gregoire/Rossi results “close”, since 4.2% and 34,000 voters is totally close.
The money aspect will play much much better than the delay aspect if they do in fact keep the delay down to within a few months (if not weeks). “It was late, but we saved over $100 million.”
I’m a little afraid for the airport portion. I’ve worked with the port several times before, and each time I’ve spent as much time in pointless but required meetings as I have actually designing projects. They seem to just suck time and money.
I think the idea was that it needs to be done by Vancouver 2010… And how bout we use that extra money to buy a fourth tbm for University Link and make that one open a little earlier?
Under budget, huh? And how again do the anti-rail folks claim Sound Transit is behind schedule and over budget? I’m so confused as to where their numbers come from. Or are they just lies with no facts (even skewed) to back them up?
Well, for one, they forget the bureaucracy that caused the delay and immediately say “this was promised by 2006!!!!”
If you don’t want something, what’s it to you that it’s late?
Secondly, the airport extension was an absolute bonus project, so who cares if it’s late? It’d be nice to have it by 2010, but that was not the original Central Link that got put into process. That’s why it’s called Aiport Link.
The times has updated their website at of 12:58 PM to note an email from an FTA spokesman today saying the deficiencies have been corrected. I guess the times likes to print first, ask questions later.
The Times and P-I are both tabloids.
Here’s the followup story:
Link to Seattle Times.
Airport spokesman Perry Cooper said, “Sound Transit is telling us they are on schedule, and we have no reason to doubt them.”
Good quote for ST.