Light rail plan comes into focus

It will cost about $3.08 billion and take until 2016 to extend light rail eight miles from Westlake Center to Northgate, Sound Transit staff told board members yesterday.

It's the first time the agency has released a schedule and budget it is willing to stand behind for the next major phase in Seattle's light rail line.

Sound Transit will not be able to get to Northgate without asking voters for more money.

But the agency believes it will have enough money to get to Husky Stadium without asking for more taxes if it drops the risky First Hill station and if it receives a federal grant of up to $650 million.

Yesterday, staff members told the board that tunneling from downtown to Husky Stadium would cost $1.85 billion if the First Hill station is included and $1.5 billion if it is dropped -- a difference of $350 million.

If the First Hill station -- planned to be near Madison Street and Boylston Avenue -- is abandoned, the line would go in a tunnel directly from downtown to a Capitol Hill station on the east side of Broadway near Seattle Central Community College and then to Husky Stadium. If voters approve the taxes, the line would continue north from Husky Stadium to a station somewhere in the University District, then to the Roosevelt District station and then to Northgate.

Interestingly, the line is projected to open in 2016, whether it gets to Husky Stadium or Northgate. That's because construction would be packaged to occur at multiple places on the line at the same time, rather than proceeding from point A to point B, said Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick. Construction is projected to start in 2008.

Also yesterday, the board formally approved extension to Sea-Tac Airport of the existing light rail line that is now under construction. The 14-mile line had been planned to go from Westlake Center to South 154th Street in Tukwila, where shuttles would pick up passengers and take them to the airport.

Though stopping the light rail line 1.7 miles short of the airport has long been widely derided, Sound Transit said in 2001 that it couldn't afford to get to the airport. Part of the problem also was the uncertainty of the Port of Seattle about its plans at the airport.

But now Sound Transit has a deal with the port and says it can afford the extra $244 million ($19 million of which has been spent) it will take to extend the line. The airport station is scheduled to be open in December 2009, about six months after the 14-mile line is opened.

"This is a fabulous day," said King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson. "It didn't make sense to anyone that it would stop 1.5 miles short (of the airport)," she said. Other board members chimed in, saying they were thrilled light rail would reach the airport; they had compliments for the Sound Transit staff.

To afford the extension to the airport, however, Sound Transit will have to lower the "debt coverage ratio" on its bonds for the South King County subarea for about two years. (Taxes raised in each of five subareas within the Sound Transit district must be spent on projects that benefit that subarea.)

Sound Transit finance staffers say lowering the coverage ratio is a safe move. But John Niles, a spokesman for the Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives, an anti-light rail group, said the move is riskier than portrayed, because a case now at state Supreme Court could reduce Sound Transit's motor vehicle excise tax revenues.

Sound Transit has completed 30 percent of the engineering to extend the light rail line to Northgate and says it can now have confidence in its cost figures.

Adding together the $2.1 billion for the 14-mile line, the $244 million for the airport extension, and the $1.85 billion to get to Husky Stadium, the total comes to $4.2 billion.

Voters in 1996 were told they'd get a 22-mile line with 19 stations by 2006 for $2.3 billion. (Editor's Note: The original version of this story gave the wrong cost figure.) Instead, they'll get a 19-mile line with 16 stations for $4.2 billion completed in 2016.

The figures are in year-of-expenditure dollars. Because the project is being completed so many years late, the cost is much higher partly because of inflation.

The figures do not include financing costs.

Sound Transit staff and technical advisers yesterday reported on the risks of tunneling to a First Hill, station 215 feet underground, saying some risks can be protected against but that there still are unavoidable unknowns that could create delay and raise costs. The depth is required to avoid bad soils.

One consultant, Dennis McCarry, a retired underground contractor who was project manager for the Mount Baker tunnel and Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, wrote the Sound Transit board, "I would highly recommend eliminating the deep underground station of First Hill."

Mayor Greg Nickels asked Sound Transit staff for a formal recommendation on the station, though several board members said it was clear the staff favors dropping it.

Most board members, with the exception of City Councilman Richard McIver, appeared to think the agency might have to abandon the station. McIver said serving Seattle University faculty and employees of three large hospitals is worth the risk and cost.

P-I reporter Jane Hadley can be reached at 206-448-8362 or janehadley@seattlepi.com.

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