WSDOT presented the RTID board with inflation cost updates for all the projects on RTID’s list this afternoon. (In September WSDOT updated the numbers for two RTID projects—the Viaduct replacement options and 520.)

I’ll give a full report after I go through the whole memo (there are 14 projects), but it’s a pricey update.
I-405, for example, went up $300 million—from $1.7 billion to $2 billion. WSDOT’s memo to the RTID board recommended deferring specific aspects of all the projects—like deferring westbound SR 520 to southbound I-405, so that RTID could stay within its $7.4 billion budget.

The trick, obviously, is not deferring popular items (like HOV lanes) that may kill support for RTID … and in turn, kill light rail expansion—which is (stupidly) coupled with RTID on the ballot.

UPDATE The new cost of the 14 projects combined is about $20.8 billion. The previous cost was about $16 billion. This isn’t including the Viaduct replacement and 520.

Obviously, the $7.4 billion RTID budget was never supposed to cover the original $16 billion total costs. (RTID is reasonably banking on an assortment of other funding sources depending on the specific project. The Viaduct replacement, for example, had $2.2 billion coming from the state.) And so, RTID isn’t expected to cover the new $20.8 billion either. But the percentage that the $7.4 billion can cover is far less.

Given that the bottom line difference between the original cost ($16 billion) and the new cost ($20.8 billion) is $4.8 billion—the projects will have to be scaled back considerably.