FOLLOWUP: City fires contractor for Morgan Junction EV lot, and sets another new completion date

| Utilities | West Seattle news

(Recent photo of site’s SW Morgan frontage)

For months, we’ve been tracking the saga of the future Morgan Junction EV lot (4118 SW Morgan), with Seattle City Light most recently saying the work had stopped because of a design flaw, and promising an update by the end of August. That didn’t materialize, so we asked SCL what was up. They promised an update by end-of-day today, and here it is:

City Light construction engineers have resolved the structural design issue that stopped work at the site in July. Separately, the City has terminated its contract with the project’s original contractor due to performance issues and is bringing on a new contractor to complete the remaining work. We expect the charging station will be completed by September 2027.

The original contractor was Zenisco. The lot, intended to have eight chargers open for (paid) public use, was first announced in 2022 and expected to be built that year. SCL is now promising “quarterly updates.”

CarDriver September 10, 2026 (4:29 pm)

Why did the city hire this contractor in the first place? City also shoulders blame as it’s clear they weren’t paying attention to what was-and wasn’t getting done in a timely fashion.

WSB September 10, 2026 (5:07 pm)

The contractor was chosen a year ago.
https://westseattleblog.com/2025/10/followup-contractor-chosen-for-morgan-junction-ev-charging-lot/
There were three years of delays before that.
Question Authority September 10, 2026 (5:51 pm)

It’s called Low Bid and with that you get what you pay for, and it usually doesn’t end well.
Guy September 10, 2026 (8:11 pm)

They are required to take the lowest qualified bidder. It’s not easy for the to fire a contractor. They must have been a complete mess.
- Erik September 10, 2026 (9:16 pm)
  
  Curious where it states this in law. Is there a source you got that information from?
  - Guy September 10, 2026 (9:27 pm)
    
    Title 39 of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW). By statute (RCW 39.04.010),
    - Erik September 10, 2026 (9:52 pm)
      
      That’s awful. The lowest bids are usually the lowest for a reason. I’ve always taken the approach of going with the middle bid. Highest is usually ripping you off. Lowest is usually lowest because they’re bad. Middle is reliable most of the time. Hopefully the contractor being fired means it will disqualify them for future projects.
    - K September 11, 2026 (5:48 am)
      
      Taxpayers demand cost savings, without considering what that means. If you look back at the comments when the contractor was chosen, there were plenty of folks who thought this contractor was being paid too much already, before work had even started.
    - Guy September 15, 2026 (10:55 am)
      
      It’s not all about cost savings. It’s also about avoiding corrupt contracting decisions.
Jeff S September 11, 2026 (9:18 am)

Katie is cleaning up Harrell’s mess. Love it!!

Mike B September 10, 2026 (5:06 pm)

Glad to hear that a private contractor performing our government’s work poorly has been let go rather than retained. Still, five years for a small parking lot with a high-voltage transformer. Private contractors and the city itself really manage to lower the bar on project expectations and delivery.

WSRob September 10, 2026 (8:56 pm)

As someone who has worked in construction, for both the private and public sector, I can tell you do not. This put out to bid by the City but they still represent as the CM on this project. The bidding and management from the City was poor from the beginning. Look at how wild all the bids with their SOVs. Also the winner of the bid doesn’t even have a secure website. This was a money grab from the start and the CM or City in this case is 100% at fault.
- Rob September 10, 2026 (10:20 pm)
  
  So, who gets fired for such an expensive careless handling of their duty?
- Guy September 15, 2026 (10:50 am)
  
  Not sure I’d say 100%. The contractor definitely has a role in this.

North Admiral Cyclist September 10, 2026 (6:32 pm)

Unfortunately, City Light’s entire approach to build these EV charging sites themselves is out-of-date. The charging station industry has completely changed in just the last year or two. It would be good to know the details about the proposed charging. Looking at the City Light webpage, it does not provide the most basic information as to what kind of charging will be provided A/C Level 2 (slow), or DC Fast Charging (150 – 400 kW)? West Seattle is a DC fast charger desert, so hoping for the later. City Light’s project webpage refers to a 2022 survey – which is likely completely out of date, as EV charging has changed dramatically in the past 2 or 3 years. Most EV car manufacturers are switching to NACS port chargers from the old CCS standard. The Ionnas and Electrify Americas of the world are putting in about 100 stations (that is locations, not jut chargers) per week in the U.S. They know the equipment, contractors and amenities (bathrooms, trash, window washing) etc) they want to include.

The Earl September 10, 2026 (6:32 pm)

Why is the system paying for an ev charging lot to begin with. what a horrible location

Corey September 10, 2026 (7:12 pm)

Holding my breath for the 2028 completion date.

Shame - get it together September 10, 2026 (7:14 pm)

What a shame? Despite EV stations being a good idea to achieve a more sustainable energy policy, this seems to be sheer incompetence. How long until whomever gets their act together? Another year? Wow. In a progressive city, this kind of crap speaks volumes. Let’s get our shi* together and get it done ahead of time and under budget (would be nice!) I’m not a fan of DOGE, but these things feed the right wing agenda regarding governmental incompetence. Perhaps it is not only the contractor who should be 86’d?

Keenan September 11, 2026 (7:08 am)

Why should the city build and operate EV charging lots? Electric cars can plug into any outlet in your house. Plug them in there. If you do not have a place by your house to charge, you SHOULD NOT buy an EV. I don’t see any city owned and operated gas stations. Private companies build those. Let private companies or the EV manufactures themselves build and operate charging lots. If it’s not profitable to do that, than guess what? Maybe it was a dumb idea to subsidize EVs in the first place without the infrastructure!

China operates private garages that can swap your entire car’s battery for a fresh charged one in seconds. But we can’t have that here because we need backwards protectionist policies to keep the corpse of the American auto industry alive. So we get the worst of all worlds and make it impossible for the free market so solve this problem because we don’t allow the free market for cars to exist in this country. These public EV lots are a bandaid and a boondoggle. Stop building them.

k September 11, 2026 (7:53 am)

Gas-powered vehicles cost the city money via contamination cleanups, so encouraging EV adoption is a net savings for the taxpayers. Not everyone has access to EV charging at home, since most require a 240v (or higher) outlet in a place that is accessible to a car. This is an expensive rewiring project for many older homes. Home charging is also not helpful when you need a charge mid-day. The city offers all kinds of free things to people for the greater good (think library services, community centers, etc.). Free EV charging on the go is something that benefits all of us.
- WSB September 11, 2026 (8:09 am)
  
  Please note, these are not ‘free’ to use. Users will be charged (in both ways).
  - Sheila Hartley September 11, 2026 (9:50 am)
    
    What is the charging rate for these chargers and who will maintain them? They are useless if they don’t work which has been a problem. Every place else seems to have fast chargers that consistently work, now. SCL seems very, very behind or simply not interested in EV charging or perhaps just West Seattle. Hope SCL has the wherewithal to get what one would hope is a now commonplace occurrence, done.
- Peter S. September 11, 2026 (11:37 am)
  
  @K: The first part of your post is untrue. Many EVs accept 120V charging. It just takes considerably longer than 240V “fast” charging, so many owners leave their EVs plugged in overnight or when parked at home.
- Keenan September 11, 2026 (12:47 pm)
  
  Show me one single cent the city spends on cleaning up contamination caused by internal combustion engines. What are they doing exactly? I just don’t believe that’s a thing that happens.
  
  EVs are an expensive, optional luxury item propped up by irrational protectionist economic policies. Countries like China (of all places) have proven that there is a free-market solution to the issue of fast charging and battery swapping. The US refuses to adopt the solution.
  
  There are much better things the city could be spending its limited funds on for “the greater good.” Build a park instead of another EV parking lot. Or put that money toward building more trains and trams in the city sooner than 2040. EVs are still personal vehicles and take us in the opposite direction of good, walkable urbanism.
  - K September 11, 2026 (1:22 pm)
    
    I mean, SPU spill response cleaned up two spills on my block alone in the space of a couple months, but you sound like you are pretty committed to your beliefs so you do you, Keenan.
  - North Admiral Cyclist September 11, 2026 (3:08 pm)
    
    Sorry, Keenan, all city, county and state road, bridge or parking projects must include clean up for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. WSDOT, SDOT, KCDOT, ST, and others have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, in our local area when installing storm water runoff clean up infrastructure. For decades now, every new, enlarged or reconstructed road or parking lot that drains toward a river, lake or Puget Sound (in other words, all of them) has “stormwater treatment” to clean up the oil drips and fuel spills associated with the pavement cars with internal combustion engines drive or park on. All cars and trucks also pollute rain water draining into local waterways with heavy metals and toxins from brake dust and tire particles. EVs put out relatively little brake dust due to regenerative braking, but they do put out tire particles.
  - Pollution solutions September 12, 2026 (7:33 pm)
    
    https://ecology.wa.gov/blog/october-2024/two-seattle-cleanup-sites
    
    it’s not hard to find these. this was just the one I noticed recently when traveling to the Beacon Hill library. tho I do agree with you that parking lots and individual vehicles aren’t a long term solution for transportation.

Mellow Kitty September 11, 2026 (9:13 am)

Hang on a sec. Are you telling me that a construction project in Seattle is years past the completion date and over budget?!? And it’s not even close to being finished? No! Surly not!

CJ September 11, 2026 (10:15 am)

Any word on what deterents will be in place to keep the copper thieves from stealing the charging cables? The cables at the Wallgreens charging station on 35th were clipped and never got replaced.

Tax Payer September 11, 2026 (11:16 am)

Where are the city built and own gas stations? Oh wait… that’s the free market private sector. Makes you wonder why there are not EV Stations all over West Seattle.