Debate on rebidding monorail heats up

One team of designers and builders told monorail project board members it could develop the 13.5-mile system in a lighter, sleeker design than a competing team that negotiated a contract.

"We never stopped believing in this project," said Andy Robbins, project development director for Bombardier Transportation, a partner in Team Monorail. But Patrick Flaherty, president of the competing Cascadia Monorail Co., objected to a Team Monorail presentation before the monorail board and said Team Monorail couldn't offer the guarantees his own team has promised.

Flaherty said his team will work with the monorail agency to reduce the $1.6 billion construction cost of the project and that Team Monorail made a "corporate choice" not to submit a design-build-operating proposal a year ago as his own team did.

Allowing Team Monorail to make another pitch while Cascadia has a contract waiting for action by the agency risks setting "a dangerous and troublesome precedent," Flaherty told monorail officials.

Monorail board members asked the two teams to appear yesterday as part of their reconsideration of the project. The board is pondering the project's fate after rejecting a proposed $11.4 billion, 50-year financing plan that aroused loud opposition when it was made public in June.

A number of Seattleites, including some monorail supporters, have called for rebidding the project, hoping it might increase competition for the work and lower prices. Team Monorail was qualified to bid but backed out, saying it could not obtain a performance bond to cover liability shared among team members.

At last night's session, Team Monorail members reiterated their idea to have liability divided between construction company members and Bombardier, the train builder. They said they have commitments for the project from several large local companies. They said the project would be guaranteed financially not only by the team members' bonds but a $50 million "completion fund."

But, questioned by Flaherty and several board members, Team Monorail officials said they don't yet have commitments from large civil contractors with enough financing power to keep the promise. They also wouldn't commit to the $1.3 billion construction price they've put on their Web site.

Board member Sue Secker questioned what guarantees Team Monorail could give. Team Monorail officials said if the Cascadia contract is rejected, a new contract could be negotiated and accepted in about seven months. But monorail staffers said the process could take nearly three years if the process is completely opened up to new bidders.

Acting board Chairwoman Kristina Hill questioned Team Monorail's ethics in creating a Web site promoting "trains not in service" and proposing liability arrangements that didn't meet last August's bid requirements.

"If we've done anything wrong, we'll correct it," said Tom Stone, Team Monorail's project director.

Also yesterday, a third monorail-construction entity, Malaysia-based Mtrans, stepped into the fray. Its chairman, David Chew, sent Hill a letter Tuesday expressing interest in building the Seattle monorail. Board member Cindi Laws said this shows the project is "viable and people are very interested in doing it."

But "rebidding doesn't solve the problem of not having enough money" for the line, said analyst Krista Camenzind of the monorail watchdog group OnTrack. "If you don't have the money, you can't pay for the contract."

P-I reporter Larry Lange can be reached at 206-448-8313 or larrylange@seattlepi.com.

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