Patty Murray is bringing in the federal dollars for Light Rail, according to this Sound Transit Press release, including $24 million for University Link! She also brought in $70 million for Central Link, all but ensuring full federal funding for the line.
Awesome!
How often do these funds come in? Is it a yearly budget?
For the Link Initial Segment, there is an annual budgeted payment schedule laid out in the Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) of 2003, for $500 million total. As long as Sound Transit is making satisfactory progress on the Initial Segment (Pine Street to Tukwila), the payments will be forthcoming.
For University Link, the planned FFGA for $750 million is not finalized yet, and early payments against that pending FFGA are a matter of negotiation among Sound Transit, USDOT, and Senator Patty Murray.
John Niles