The Puget Sound Regional Council has released their approved project list to receive funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
The only change from the initial staff recommendations is that the Metro hybrid bus purchase fund has been increased by $3m, by zeroing out funding for a Burien TOD project (I think it’s this project). The big relief, though, is clinching the Metro vehicle maintenance subsidy, which should plug the 2009 deficit, increasing the time for someone to save Metro before armageddon in 2010.
I’ve asked Metro if the $25m for maintenance does count directly against the $29m deficit, and will follow up when I get an answer.
The full FTA list (and FHA list) is below the jump.
How’s that for “shovel ready”? Sound Transit broke ground today for University Link, the extension of light rail from Downtown Seattle through Capitol Hill to the University of Washington at Husky Stadium. Initial work involves utility relocation, making way for station and tunnel excavation scheduled to begin late this year and last approximately three years.
The groundbreaking marked the beginning of the end of the 1996 Sound Move plan, and was a day many who worked on this original plan thought would never come. Today’s milestone is certainly something to celebrate.
When completed, U-Link will offer a seven minute ride between Downtown Seattle and the University, and Sound Transit estimates the U-Link line alone will add an incredible 70,000 daily boardings to the system by 2030. Martin also mentioned yesterday that bringing light rail further north offers many opportunities to improve bus service for the area.
In the shorter term, University Link will generate an estimated much-needed 2,900 direct construction jobs and 22,800 other direct and indirect jobs as result of economic activity generated by the project.
Even though I’m extremely excited for July when Central Link opens, I already can’t wait for 2016!
For those of you who have the time or hang out near the University, Friday afternoon holds a special treat for you:
University Link Groundbreaking
March 06, 2009
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Husky Stadium
Sound Transit
The importance of starting to actually turn some earth is difficult to overestimate. Once capital expenditures start being expended the logic of sunk costs makes it harder and harder for various public nuisances to stop the project.
The ridership on U-Link will be astronomical, and the increase in quality-of-ride over buses will be especially large. University Link (and North Link after it) will also provide many opportunities for elimination, consolidation, truncation, or reduction in capacity of Metro bus routes, easing their long-term operating budget crisis. This is a big moment for the region.
The Vancouver area’s newest Sky Train addition, the Canada Line, will open a couple of months ahead of schedule: August instead of late November. The Canada Line was built in two parts, the first is a mostly cut-and-cover, partly deep-bored subway from Downtown Vancouver to almost the Fraser River, with seven new subway stations and one new subway platform at an existing station. The second part is a mostly elevated segment from the Fraser River toward the Vancouver Airport and Richmond, with eight more stations. The total line length is 19 km (11.8 miles).
All-in-all, it’s been pretty impressive how the line has gone from approval to near completion in just over four years, but obviously the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics have helped the project get quick approval. The $1.5 billion price tag for the line is mind-bogglingly cheap. For comparison, the University Link project has a $1.8 billion price tag. However, the line’s construction has not been without controversy, especially because the cut-and-cover construction for the subway line has much more invasive on the surface than the deep-bored solution that Sound Transit is using for our subway tunnels.
The Canada line is also a lower-capacity system compared to both Link and to Sky Train’s Expo and Millenium Lines. Canada Line’s station platforms are only 40 m (131 ft) long, and can only accomodate one long car at a time. For comparison, Portland’s Max has platforms that are 60 m (200 ft) long, and Link’s platforms are 110 m (370 ft) long. Portland’s stations and trains feel short, I anticapate that the Canada line will run into capacity problems in the future.
Even having said all of that, it’s remarkable that Translink, Vancouver and BC have been able to build a line that’s mostly underground and elevated with 16 stations with a price tag in the $100~$150 million per mile range. Shows that they are definitely doing something different up there than we are here.
The PRSC has released the preliminary list of projects that will receive FTA grants from the stimulus bill in our area. Here’s a map of the projects, and here’s the pdf of the list. There’s a lot of money for new buses, $1 million for the monorail (!!!) and even $341,000 for preventative maintence on the SLU streetcar. There’s $4.6 million for North Link acceleration and $4.6 million for track and signals on the M street to Lakewood line that Sounder and Amtrak want to install as part of the Point Defiance Bypass.
Here’s the “short list” of stimulus projects for the PSRC‘s FTA grants. The PSRC expects to get $135 million in FTA money for these projects. As you notice, there’s $316 million in projects here, so the actual grants are 42.5% of the list here in terms of cost. Thanks again to Rick Olson of the PSRC. Continue reading “Transit Stimulus Short List”
In the last ST Board meeting video, Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl described how stimulus funds could be given to Sound Transit. I learned some interesting facts on how the stimulus package will work in our region. Obviously, these could change as amendments come around, and as the conference committee meets after the Senate passes their bill. Continue reading “How the Stimulus Will Work”
University Link has been officially awarded the $813 million “full funding grant agreement” from the FTA today. This is the largest New Start grant ever awarded – the previous largest was $750 million – and is 43% of U Link’s total $1.9 billion price tag. Construction on the extension is ready to begin this month, and a few demolition contracts have already been awarded.
We knew this was coming, but it still lightens the blow of today’s stimulus news. Here are some interesting engineering details from the DJC coverage on the today‘s news:
Next month, Sound Transit is likely to award a $19.5 million contract to Condon Johnson to cut a path under Interstate 5 for the tunnels that will run between downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill. Condon Johnson’s bid was more than 30 percent under the engineer’s estimate. To make way for the tunnel boring machine, Sound Transit’s contractor will drill holes in the cylinder pile walls buried along the freeway and fill them with lean concrete that the boring machine can drill through.
These pile walls, which have giant steel beams in the middle of each cylinder, are about 50 feet deep and they keep Capitol Hill from sliding into downtown Seattle.
Gray said to anchor the walls “we’ll have steel tiebacks going from the walls more than 100 feet into the side of the hill.”
Going under a single-digit interstate through a major city while the interstate is operating will be a significant engineering feat. I hope it makes it onto Colossal Construction.
