Will Sound Transit’s Hilltop Tacoma Link Extension ever be finished? Not at this rate
This is why people are skeptical of Sound Transit. This is why the mere mention of the massive agency’s name tends to elicit sharp scowls and irritated muttering.
This is one reason why the regional transit authority, for everything it’s accomplished and everything it’s provided, remains so unpopular in many parts of Pierce County.
Last week, as has happened too many times before, Sound Transit announced that the opening of the much-anticipated Hilltop Tacoma Link Extension will be delayed. Originally, the 2.4-mile route extension — which will one day connect downtown with the Stadium District and Hilltop, as we’ve been told since time immemorial — was supposed to open earlier this year. Then it was supposed to open in spring 2023.
Now, four long years after the project broke ground, Sound Transit officials say the line will debut by the fall of 2023 — not that there’s any reason to believe it (at least until we see it).
Is that a cynical, hyperbolic take? You bet your ORCA card it is. Even as a known proponent of public transportation, there’s only so much a reasonable person can take before resorting to incoherent arm flailing and exasperated shouts toward the sky. I was a young man when Tacoma was first promised a light-rail extension. I’m not so young anymore.
Despite our hardened exteriors and the chips on our shoulders, the people of Tacoma and Pierce County tend to be understanding. We don’t expect perfection, because few (if any) of us are. What we do expect is competence and respect, and it’s difficult to see how Sound Transit is delivering either at the moment.
As The News Tribune’s Liz Moomey reported last week, the reason for the Hilltop Tacoma Link Extension’s latest delay is a familiar one: “construction issues.” Apparently, according to an update from new Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm posted on the agency’s website, a potential problem with “track geometry” has been identified, and the experts are being called in. I’m only a lowly newspaper columnist, but the “tracks” part of any light rail project seem pretty important.
The bigger problem, of course, is that this is not a one-off. As the cost overruns have mounted over the years — adding more than $60 million to the expected price tag so far — so have the hiccups, oopsie daisies and do-overs. Earlier this year, a final systems test revealed stray electrical current pulsing under a segment of newly installed track, resulting in an additional month of work. It’s not the only setback the project has encountered, and for the local businesses and residents impacted by torn-up streets and detour signs, Sound Transit’s apologies and declarations of “our bad” only go so far.
Then there are Sound Transit’s regional missteps, which only provide further reason for questions, criticism and collective side-eye. Up north (spit), the agency originally planned to open the East Link light rail extension between Seattle and the Eastside by next year. It’s now looking like it could be 2025 before it happens. The Mariners could win the World Series before then.
While announcing the most recent delay, Timm, who was hired in June to replace former CEO Peter Rogoff, said Sound Transit, which has the distinction of being the largest transit expansion effort in the country, is committed to transparency. There will be “no surprises,” she promised, adding that updates on the Hilltop Link Extension will be provided as soon as they’re available.
“With this project’s location on city streets in Tacoma, construction impacts have been felt strongly by residents and businesses on the alignment. On behalf of everyone at Sound Transit, we share your feelings of urgency to complete construction,” Timm wrote online.
“We pledge to you that we will work to open this project as soon as we can do so while maintaining quality and safety and will keep the lines of communication open on the progress toward start of service.”
While that’s encouraging to hear from the head of an agency that hasn’t always done right by Tacoma, it’s also, essentially, a commitment to the bare minimum.
What would be even better is no more mistakes.
What would be best of all is a finished project, sooner rather than later.
