17 Replies to “Tune in to the Board Meeting at 1:30!”

  1. Authorizing the chief executive officer to execute a contract with Traylor Frontier-Kemper Joint Venture, to construct approximately 11,400 lineal feet of twin-bored tunnels from the University of Washington Station to Capitol Hill Station within the University Link project in the amount of $309,175,274, with a contingency of $46,376,291, for a total authorized contract amount not to exceed $355,551,565, which includes $30,000 of cost reimbursable to Sound Transit from the University of Washington for betterments

    $30,000 is like bending over to pick up a penny when talking about a $300M contract but the last I heard UW was asking ST for $250,000 in compensation for lost attendance at football and basketball games because of construction. Maybe they still are?

    1. They’re asking for $250,000 in compensation for lost attendance… ? wtf?

      Those damn Huskies. The City is building a world class subway that will act as a perfect funnel for everyone south of the city so they can all come to the Husky games, and they’re asking for compensation for lost attendance. That’s fine, i’d agree to pay for lost attendance during construction as long as they will offer the same amount to Sound Transit for increased attendance for every year after completion due to the stadium being so much easier to reach.

      It seems to me this is like someone whose house is on fire complaining that you stopped spraying it with your garden hose while you hooked up the fire hose.

      1. well husky games are generally sold out when the team is doing well, so I don’t know that sound transit could expect compensation for “increased attendance.” What they COULD pay for is the ability to convert some of the parking on campus to better uses.

      2. Oops, I was confused. It was the 520 Pacific Street interchange that the UW was asking the State compensation for, not ST and East Link. Sorry to stir the pot. Note to self, go back and check sources first!

  3. Is anyone going to watch?

    Good question:

    We are experiencing technical problems with today’s webcast. We’ll have it running as soon as possible.

  7. Where are docs on some of these alternatives that they are talking about in with regard to the amendments? Specifically, now a fellow is talking about a 124th avenue station being moved to the south. There is some developer who would/might pay for some of it. Is there docs on this?

    1. No, the amendments usually take a while to get anywhere, if they’re even ever online. A lot of it has never appeared online as far as I’ve seen – the bus frontloading amendment to ST2 last year? I’ve never seen it in writing.

      This is a great point, and I’ll ask someone at Sound Transit about it.

      1. My impression is that the amendments are folded into the final document before it is published. Not quite the paper trail we get with the legislature but this document is only a guide; it doesn’t actually do anything. One was actually changed on the fly by a verbal action called a friendly amendment. The original presenter just hand wrote the changes and it was adopted.

    2. Interesting part of this meeting is that the Board is looking to Wright Runstad, the developer of The Springs project in Bel-Red to foot the bill for the Station there. Not sure what they’ll do if the answer is “sorry, no cash” or who/what/why the second station in Bel-Red was even on the plan.

      Most of the proposed ammendments were just wording changes that meant nothing. There was no discussion of the Bellevue preferred alternative tunnel or surface route although all routes in the DEIS must be studied as was as those presented officially for consideration.

      One amendment that sort of had teeth was Paula Hammond’s which puts ST on the hook to pay for a dedicated ROW for Link and preserve the HOV onramp between Bellevue Way and I-90. One member tried to paint this as “only” a safety issue that wouldn’t affect commute time. Without the HOV ramp a “weave” traffic pattern will result. Who can sit there with a straight face and claim that a traffic weave doesn’t affect commute times for not only the HOV lanes but the GP lanes as well. An increased accidents don’t affect commute times?? What genius study was this? The increased cost to ST is estimated at $23M. Hardly a back breaker and I think WSDOT is right in requiring it.

      Much was made about what could be considered “additional money” for the Bellevue tunnel. Joni Earl spoke well on this. She said $985M in Federal funds is already assumed in funding for East Link. Money would first of all have to be in addition to that amount. She did point out however that certain pools of Federal Money may be available to cities that are not available to ST so that’s another possibility. The tunnel was quoted at being an additional $500M in 2007 dollars. But this is a very preliminary estimate and in every other case the engineering design estimates have come back 30% higher or more.

      Once again the MF issue was not addressed and it must be before the Final EIS can be prepared and the final route selection voted on.

      1. Well, hopefully they can “defer” one of the Bel-Red stations later on. Having stations too close together takes the rapid out of rapid transit.

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