From California to Maine, and from Idaho to Florida, I’d just like to say thank you for the new light rail commuter train station at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Add $20 Million to the Sea-Tac light-rail station
After a year of negotiations, Sound Transit has decided to accept a $20 million cost increase on its light-rail station at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The total station cost is now $72 million, plus a $2 million contingency, compared with the original estimate of $52 million. The cost increase was endorsed by Sound Transit’s Finance Committee on Thursday and is expected to be approved by the transit board next week.
Last March, Mowat Construction offered the sole bid — at $95 million. Sound Transit rejected the bid, and light-rail director Ahmad Fazel and Mowat moved to cut costs by simplifying the design while Mowat started work on the tracks and the main station shell.
Our Senator, and ranking Democrat on the Senate Transportation Committee, decided that your money was more important than ours, so you all are helping built this new and ever-more expensive light rail line. We told the state and county governments that us locals didn’t want enough to pay for it, so the “commuter-transit†folks all put their heads together and asked her to get us the billions (with a B) of long green for the job.
Not that the small number of people it’ll take off the roads will make a dent in our traffic situation, of course. And the funniest part is that the roads around where commuters are supposed to park haven’t been (and aren’t scheduled to be) improved to make access easier for those willing to ride the train.
So we’ll be back askin’ y’all fer more soon.
Thanks again