Another $20 million down the drain for transit expansion

The I-90 floating bridge rail design – extending service to the Eastside – was never going to be easy. Now, Sound Transit will spend as much as $20 million more than expected because of what appears to be poor management and lack of foresight.

And not a single track has yet been installed, despite being funded by voters by 2008 in a regional ballot measure.

Mike Lindblom of The Seattle Times reports:

Ron Lewis, project director for East Link, shared the blame between his own team and engineering giant Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB). The company could now earn $56 million instead of its earlier $36 million contract figure, which began at $28 million in 2012.

Along with what Lewis called “inefficiencies” in the workflow, the cost increase will pay for deeper research than managers envisioned.

What’s even more disappointing, though not at all shocking, is that Sound Transit’s final I-90 plan won’t be done until late 2016 after being delayed another year.

Every delay of this nature makes it harder and harder to actually trust any transportation agency or department in the state of Washington.

The Alaska Way Viaduct has been an embarrassment of monumental proportions, thanks to WSDOT. The Mercer Mess has seemingly gotten worse under SDOT management. We’re getting hit with toll after toll – with upwards of $10 a pop on I-405 – but for what?

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We keep getting hit with bigger and bigger bills with very little to show for it. Traffic and congestion have gotten worse, spending on these projects goes through the roof, and they’re unable to stay either on budget or on schedule. Yet, they ask us for more and more money.

Sound Transit has to audacity to ask us for $15 billion through a new property tax, higher sales taxes, car tab taxes, or some combination of all of them, according to the Times. They ask for more money and don’t seem ashamed that they’re squandering the budget because it’s not their money they’re spending; it’s ours.

Have they done anything to warrant that kind of funding? They can’t seem to help move this I-90 design along after seven years, but they want us to trust them with another $15 billion?

Will you be willing to give them more money or should they maybe prove themselves worthy of our hard-earned dollars?