Release of Sound Transit sketches irks berm opponents

Expect Round Two of a public dispute between Sound Transit and a group of citizens before the Tacoma City Council tonight.

Sound Transit released updated drawings Monday of a planned commuter train bridge over Pacific Avenue. The agency also rolled out revised drawings of the route the tracks will take from Tacoma Dome Station to South M Street.

That irked a group of residents and business owners, who complained Sound Transit took its sketches to City Council members, The News Tribune and the Internet without giving them a preview.

The agency is expected to formally show the drawings to the council tonight, depicting a combination of at-grade crossings, overpasses and an earthen berm.

Opponents say they’ll come with their own set of engineering information and cost estimates in support of their plan, Dome District President Keith Stone said Monday.

They want the tracks carried atop concrete beams supported by posts, a design they believe is better for the neighborhood. And they have engineers’ estimates that the job from the B Street Gully to South C Street could be done at less expense than Sound Transit’s plans for that stretch, Stone said.

The dueling presentations could be interesting, but the debate is not directly tied to the final agreements with Sound Transit on which the council is scheduled to vote.

None of the agenda items has to do with the architecture; the basic plans for the 1.2-mile segment of track were approved months ago, and Sound Transit says the design is complete.

Council members are highly interested in how the bridge over Pacific Avenue will look. They consider that area a gateway to the city.

Late last week, agency officials showed City Council members and The News Tribune concept drawings that included a brick red span over Pacific. Sound Transit spokesman Ron Klein said it was meant to echo the warehouses nearby and the University of Washington Tacoma campus.

But transit officials revised their depiction to a white bridge after council members said they wanted to see something more neutral, Klein said in an e-mail to The News Tribune.

No final decision on the look of the bridge has been made, Klein said.

“Before and after” photos and drawings of the East D-to-M Street corridor depict improvements like paved roads, bike lanes and a pedestrian plaza Sound Transit will make.

Both Stone and Tacoma mayoral candidate Jim Merritt decried the publication by Web strategy. The transit agency says it listens to its constituents, then doesn’t show its work to the groups who’ve expressed intense interest, Stone complained.

Then he added, “It’s nothing new. We’ve been getting this (stonewalled) for three years.”

Sound Transit promised two weeks ago they’d have drawings in a week, Stone said. “This doesn’t give anybody any time to look at it (before the council meeting).”

Sound Transit has countered that the design of the route has been thoroughly vetted in a long series of public meetings and that it’s time to build the rail line.

Sound Transit plans to put the $161 million D-to-M Street project out for construction bids in December. It will link up to existing work from South M Street to Lakewood.

Commuter rail service is scheduled to open in the Tacoma Dome Station to Lakewood corridor in the late spring or summer of 2012.

Kris Sherman: 253-597-8659

kris.sherman@thenewstribune.com thenewstribune.com

See this story on our Web site to view the new sketches of the Sounder rail line design.

MEETING TONIGHT

What: Tacoma City Council

When: 5 p.m. today

Where: Tacoma City Hall, 747 Market St.

On the agenda: Council votes on agreements with Sound Transit. The decisions don’t involve design of the rail line, which has already been OK’d. But opponents say they’ll try to persuade the council and Sound Transit to change their plans.