Thursday, August 27, 2009
Transportation / City Sound Transit: On Time and Under Budget?
Posted by Bryan T. Bissell on Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Check out what Sound Transit said today about the price of the light rail tunnel connecting downtown and Capitol Hill station:
Sound Transit opened bids today for work that will get underway next year to bore light rail tunnels connecting Capitol Hill and the existing Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.The apparent low bid was submitted by JCM U-Link Joint Venture, formed by Jay Dee Contractors of Livonia, Mich.; Frank Collucio Construction Company of Seattle; and Michaels Corporation of Brownsville, Wis. Its bid of $153,556,000 came in 12 percent, or $20.7 million, below the Sound Transit engineer’s estimate of $174,304,700.
“The bids we opened today show that Puget Sound taxpayers will continue to benefit from the current favorable construction market,” said Sound Transit Link Light Rail Executive Director Ahmad Fazel. “University Link light rail construction is well underway and late next year we will reach the exciting milestone of launching a tunnel boring machine from the Capitol Hill Station.”
We'll see what happens, but that is some potentially good news.
1
It's always possible to come in "under budget" if you revise your budget number upwards sufficiently. According to the original "budget" that was used to sell Sound Transit to voters, we should already have that tunnel for less than we already paid.
2
If you believe this, don't you also think we should get cracking on that viaduct tunnel while prices are low? Or is cost not the most important aspect of your opposition?
3
I'm always wary of the lowest estimate. It makes me wonder: 1. what they missed in the estimate and 2. how many change-orders are we in for?
Profits must still be made. How much money will be wasted during construction with revisions and change orders?
Profits must still be made. How much money will be wasted during construction with revisions and change orders?
4
@2: You can't start working on a tunnel until the engineering is done. The engineering on the tunnel is roughly 4% complete. They won't have a realistic cost estimate or a workable engineering plan for at least a year.
Actually, no, let's build that 4% engineered tunnel right now! You can test it.
Actually, no, let's build that 4% engineered tunnel right now! You can test it.
5
@2 - I'm not sure that cost should be THE most important factor. It seems to me that whatever we build is going to define transportation in this city for the decades, we might want to take other factors into account.
6
It's always possible to whine about taxes for an on-time and under-budget transit project if you're trying to cram an underfunded Billionaires Tunnel down the voters throats after they voted down the whole tunnel concept in the first place.
Kudos to ST LINK for the great work!
Kudos to ST LINK for the great work!
7
All bids are low right now because there isn't any work. Construction prices have gone down to what they were 20 years ago, so building ANYTHING (if you can get financing or finance it yourself) is going to be the cheapest right now. There isn't any magic to it or any lies. It's just what is going on in the market. I should know, my firm has been bidding on government work, so I know first hand how low the numbers have gotten since December, and how many firms will slash fee and take a loss just to have some work on the books. It's a hard time right now, FYI.
9
$153, 556, 000.
Could be salary of $153,556 for 1000 people.
Or 15,335 given to 10,000 artists.
All to go 2 miles.
Could be salary of $153,556 for 1000 people.
Or 15,335 given to 10,000 artists.
All to go 2 miles.
10
That sure would buy a lot of drinks at the Washington Bus event (free) at Moe Bar tonight from 6-8 pm.
13
Historical note: On the last hours of the Clinton Administration in January 2001, the Feds ratified Sound Transit's promise to build a light rail subway tunnel to University of Washington and operate trains in it by the summer of 2006. That whole deal, which included a $500 million Federal construction grant, collapsed within a few months.
The remarkable follow up accomplishment by Sound Transit during the post 9/11 Administration of George W. Bush -- with heavy lifting from Senator Patty Murray -- was to morph that promise into the Airport train we have recently opened in the summer of 2009. On top of that, simultaneously, Sound Transit achieved a re-do of the Capitol Hill subway deal with even more Federal grant funding and fewer station stops than the first time around.
This was all greased by the reality of how very, very much the people of the Puget Sound region want to be a subway metropolis at any cost, expressed in the Prop 1 vote of November 2008 to double Sound Transit's tax collections. Shortly thereafter, a reworked Capitol Hill subway deal was quickly ratified in time for ground breaking in the final days of the Bush Administration.
Future note: Between now and opening in 2017, we'll see how the Capitol Hill subway construction goes. Lots of interesting interactions are likely to develop with the related public commitments around Prop 1 light rail extensions north, east, and south, and with planned express bus service on the new SR 520 bridge, and with whatever comes out of the sausage making around the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement.
The remarkable follow up accomplishment by Sound Transit during the post 9/11 Administration of George W. Bush -- with heavy lifting from Senator Patty Murray -- was to morph that promise into the Airport train we have recently opened in the summer of 2009. On top of that, simultaneously, Sound Transit achieved a re-do of the Capitol Hill subway deal with even more Federal grant funding and fewer station stops than the first time around.
This was all greased by the reality of how very, very much the people of the Puget Sound region want to be a subway metropolis at any cost, expressed in the Prop 1 vote of November 2008 to double Sound Transit's tax collections. Shortly thereafter, a reworked Capitol Hill subway deal was quickly ratified in time for ground breaking in the final days of the Bush Administration.
Future note: Between now and opening in 2017, we'll see how the Capitol Hill subway construction goes. Lots of interesting interactions are likely to develop with the related public commitments around Prop 1 light rail extensions north, east, and south, and with planned express bus service on the new SR 520 bridge, and with whatever comes out of the sausage making around the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement.
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