After the Sound Transit board passed a revised ST3 system plan two weeks ago, including a commitment to build West Seattle light rail as planned – minus the Avalon station – the agency said “a flurry of activity” would follow. Today brought evidence of that – the board’s Executive Committee System Expansion Committee voted this afternoon in favor of motions committing more than $400 million to the ext stage of the project, primarily to advance design past the current 30 percent level. A large part of the allocation was described as being for “supplementing” ST’s own staff, though it was promised that if in-house staff became available, they’d be used instead. ST’s Brad Owen – whose role has just been elevated with the impending departure of deputy CEO of megaprojects Terri Mestas – also told the committee that “cost-saving work continues” and the current estimated price tag of the West Seattle extension is $4.9 billion to $5.3 billion, as shown on this slide:
SEE THE DETAILS: The slide deck from this part of today’s meeting is here; the motions that got committee support today are here, here, and here. They’ll go to the full board in two weeks.
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