Sound Transit has $6.5 billion ST3 budget gap. What does that mean for Tacoma projects?
South Sounders will have to wait a few more years for high-speed transit to reach Tacoma from the north.
To help offset a $6.5 billion shortfall, the Sound Transit board Thursday voted to approve a “realignment plan” that delays many projects that are part of the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure, passed by voters in 2016.
The “steep rise in real estate and construction costs in the region” combined with “advancing environmental review and project designs” have contributed to the gap, Sound Transit staff said.
The new plan shows what’s possible under current financial projections while setting goals to build the next generation of ST3 projects as soon as possible, according to Sound Transit Board Chair and City of University Place Council member Kent Keel.
“In the next three years Sound Transit will nearly triple the length of our light rail system from 22 to 62 miles,” Keel said in a press release Thursday evening. “The realignment plan will guide our work to expedite the next waves of projects, including reaching Tacoma, Everett, West Seattle and Ballard and delivering bus rapid transit and Sounder expansions.”
The new plan prioritizes voter-approved projects by dividing them into four tiers, with Tier 1 meaning a project would move forward as close as possible to the original ST3 schedule, experiencing delays of 2 years or fewer.
In the South Sound, the long-awaited 10-mile Tacoma Dome Link Extension project is in Tier 1 and would experience a two-year delay, for a completion date of 2032 instead of 2030 for the high-speed light-rail connection to Tacoma from Federal Way. The project’s cost jumped 10 percent to $3.3 billion earlier this year.
The new plan gives Tacoma Dome Link parking a completion date of 2038, compared to the original 2030. Separating the parking from the actual link rail project itself will help prevent further delays, Sound Transit staff said.
Pierce County leaders determined parking was still needed and was able to shave off two years of waiting by suggesting an amendment that bumped creation of parking from Tier 4 (with a completion date of 2040) to Tier 3 (with a completion date of 2038). Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards, Fife Mayor Kim Roscoe and Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier, who are all on the Sound Transit board, drafted the amendment that was passed by the board.
A project to build light rail to Tacoma Community College from the Hilltop neighborhood in 2039 is also in Tier 1, with a delayed “affordable schedule” of 2041.
Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier and Snohomish Executive Dave Somers sounded the alarm prior to Thursday’s meeting, urging the Sound Transit board to focus on completing the light rail spine from Everett to Tacoma, which they said is the best and quickest way to relieve congestion on the I-5 corridor.
“The people of Pierce County (and Snohomish County) have been paying taxes with little new service,” Dammeier said in a statement on Friday. “The realignment keeps new service to Tacoma and Everett in the top tier. It also puts in place key project checks and process changes to correct Sound Transit’s history of significant cost overruns. The agency must deliver – on budget and on schedule – for our entire region.”
On Thursday, the board approved an amendment to the new plan, sponsored by Somers and Dammeier, that prevents authorization of final design or construction on any project if there’s still a funding gap that delays other projects in the region.
“By sticking to the voter approved ST3 projects, this amendment wouldn’t prevent another area of the region from securing state or federal funding for elements that were not in the ST3 package (e.g. tunnels, additional stations, parking garages, etc.),” Somers and Dammeier said in a joint statement on Wednesday. “The amendment will protect funding needed to build out the spine from Tacoma to Everett, while allowing counties, cities or others to raise money for any extra additions.”
Projects that are currently under construction are not subject to the new realignment plan, according to Sound Transit. In Tacoma, that means the project to extend the light rail 2.4 miles through Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood is poised to open on schedule in 2022.
“The Hilltop budget is trending to be on budget, but the budget will be influenced if there are any project delays,” Sound Transit spokesperson Scott Thompson said Friday. “We are currently experiencing a delay in getting the new vehicles, which is also COVID related at the manufacturer. We don’t know yet if that will have any budget impact.”
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 10:05 AM.
