Calling the deep-bore tunnel a “rogue project,” a coalition of three organizations—the Sierra Club, Real Change News, and the United African Public Affairs Committee—are proposing to file a city initiative that would let voters decide whether Seattle should require the state to pay for any cost overruns on the $2.8 billion project. If it passes, the project would be on hold. Presumably the city could withdraw construction permits to the state—or suspend a contract with the state—to dig under downtown until the state legislature asserts a funding mechanism to pay for cost overruns.
“If the State wants a tunnel, then they must demonstrate that they can pay for it, and pay for it responsibly,” Tim Harris, Director of Real Change News, said in statement. “We are proposing an initiative to uphold the original agreement and get this rogue project under control.”
Brady Montz, chair of the Seattle Sierra Club, says they intend to file a measure “as soon as possible.” Initiative text is still being written.
However, the group already seems to be in disarray; Montz said the initiative wasn’t supposed to be announced yet, but a member of the Sierra Club sent the news release yesterday without the group’s permission.
Pressed for a timeline, Montz said the entire thing “depends on whether we can get a good initiative,” which suggests the group isn’t fully committed to following through.
The legislature has passed a law capping its spending at $2.8 billion and saying it intends to collect any cost overruns from Seattle property owners. If the state runs out of money, the legislature must decide how to pay for the unfinished megaproject—a type of tunnel project that typically runs 34 percent over budget—and it has the authority, among several revenue options, to establish specific taxation districts to collect that money.
The first set of bids on the tunnel are due out today; however they may not include a price tag. The state has announced in the last weeks that it’s giving hundreds of over $200 millions in concessions to the two remaining bidders (two already dropped out), which indicates bidders are concerned about he risky project and the state is already expending extra money that it hadn’t budgeted.
The group’s (rather odd) press release is after the jump.
On Thursday, the two remaining bidders who found enough corners to cut in order to come in below the $1.96 billion dollar budget for the deep bore tunnel (DBT) will submit their proposals, but the DBT already has unacceptable cost overruns. Last week the State offered hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of incentives to the final two remaining bidders in a last-ditch effort to make bids for the project come in on budget. This “generosity” leaves less than 10% in contingency funds for the State’s $1.96 billion DBT. This massive giveaway of public funds represents another piece of bad news for a project which has been built on a foundation of lies and broken promises ever since the politicians announced the initial agreement.
“First, they ignored a year’s worth of fantastic work by the Stakeholder Advisory Committee that recommended a far cheaper waterfront alternative. Then they chose the most expensive option on the menu, and celebrated with a champagne toast to wash it down. Since then the politicians have broken promise after promise and made this project a bad deal for Seattle’s citizens by cutting transit funding, shrinking the contingency fund, and making Seattle taxpayers responsible if the project goes over budget” said Sierra Club volunteer Drew Paxton.
“We asked the City Council to protect Seattle residents from the risk of tunnel cost overruns; and they responded by completely ignoring the issue,” said Yusuf Cabdi, Chair of the United African Public Affairs Committee. “The State, County and City still have not answered the basic question of who will pay when this project goes over budget; this leaves our most vulnerable populations at risk and jeopardizes Seattle’s plans for developing a more sustainable and equitable transportation system.”
“The fact that the State is already giving away hundreds of millions of dollars just to ensure the bids come in within budget is a giant red flag for this project and demonstrates that this project already has cost overruns,” said Tim Harris, Director of Real Change News. “If the State wants a tunnel, then they must demonstrate that they can pay for it, and pay for it responsibly. We are proposing an initiative to uphold the original agreement and get this rogue project under control.”
and the process never ends. don’t they know? votes mean shit in seattle.
Great…this an even bigger scam.
The whole point is to bilk the whole state for this boondoggle.
It’s a tax disguised as a “project”.
Throw them out on 2 November.
@1 if it’s a binding vote filed on the initiative system Conlin et al is helpless likely and has their hands tied. If I recall correctly it works like this:
1. You need x% of the number of votes the last mayor won by in resident signatures. So something like 25,000-35,000 based on McGinn.
2. Once that’s ratified it goes to Conlin et al. They can accept it and bam–binding law, whatever it is as long as it doesn’t conflict with city/state/US charters/constitution.
3. If they reject it, it goes to a city-wide vote. If the city accepts it, it’s binding law.
Basically, to paraphase one of the great pieces of literature of our times, if this goes to vote and passes, Richard Fancypantn Conlin won’t be leading but two things: Jack and shit, and Jack would have been voted out of town.
Seriously? So many people are against this project at this point they’re just throwing themselves in front of the unfunded TBM.
#Joe,
OT: Is that Wally Wackiman in your avatar? Are you a fan of the Best Show on WFMU?
@5 That is Clarence from Wonder Showzen. I probably should listen to Best Show, though. A friend is or was often on it and I’ve had people say I’d particularly like it.
Trust me, this is only the beginning.
The problem with the DSA elites and their Billionaire and Millionaire comrades is they only think of a one-front war, when in fact they’re faced with a multi-faceted semi-coordinated attack from all corners.
Surrender is the only option. You don’t have the votes to pass the Deeply Boring Tunnel and you know it. Not in the City. Not in the County. Not in the State. Nobody wants it.
The initiative is OK but how about a lawsuit too, if the SDEIS has truly been rigged to assume no tolls on the tunnel, and thus reduce surface traffic impact?
Is someone working on that? I’ll pitch in for legal expenses…
@ #8: Good idea, spock!
Unless the final EIS has a good analysis of the impact of tolls, I think a lawsuit might be a very good idea. I’d chip in, too.
@8 good idea.
Not to mention the obvious three major EPA violations that haven’t been addressed that the Deeply Boring Tunnel is in violation of.
I’m a little surprised that it took someone this long to file an initiative. I half expected someone to push one this summer to be on the current ballot.
FUCKING PULL IT TOGETHER SEATTLE!
I am so fucking sick of hearing about this project, I’m ready to vote for martial fucking law until it is just fucking done. Our grandparents and GREAT grandparents built our roads, and we are whining like little bitches for having to do our share after riding them hard and putting them away wet for 30+ years. UnFUCKINGbelievable. What a bunch of limp dicked pussies we turned out to be. Grow the fuck up and fix what’s broken.
Are tunnels expensive? Yes. So are fucking houses and cars, and we don’t seem to mind SIGNING OUR FUCKING LIVES AWAY for those. Know why? Because we think they’re WORTH IT. Know why we don’t fix our fucking infrastructure? Because we don’t think it’s worth it. We’re a bunch of spoiled fucking brats who take basic infrastructure for granted.
Never in my fucking life have I heard so many baristas, school teachers, accountants, and computer jockies tell REAL FUCKING ROAD ENGINEERS why their ideas are stupid. It’s unreal. It’s like you think 5 minutes and Google turned you into a fucking expert on civil engineering. “Hey, I just did 5 minutes of research on the intertoobs, and carefully did 2 minutes of totally wrong calculations on my iPhone and figured out that you could replace the viaduct with wheelbarrows and a series of chutes for less than a tunnel.” Fucking great, genius. Now the you’re done telling the Washington State Department of Transportation how to build roads, why don’t you go back to being a FUCKING DENTIST or WEB PROGRAMMER or whatever the fuck you do. PS – WSDOT will be by later to tell you how to pull teeth and build websites. Because you know, they have the google too.
I don’t think the tunnel is perfect. I know it’s expensive. But for FUCKS SAKE how long are we going to think about this. If you’re on board, great. If not, maybe respect all the work that has ALREADY BEEN DONE and go wring your fucking hands in your safe room until we’re finished ACTUALLY FUCKING MAKING PROGRESS.
rant off.
@12: You’ve made no compelling case for the tunnel other than conflating it with progress and claiming that engineers worked on it.
Just because the viaduct needs a replacement doesn’t mean a tunnel is it. Since it’s pretty well a matter of public record that the tunnel is vastly more expensive than the alternatives and carries far less traffic and has a host of potential engineering problems, why not build something else?
@13, because none of that is true either.