Mayor Mike McGinn sent a letter (.pdf) to Governor Chris Gregoire today saying that she agreed the state must pay for any cost overruns on the deep-bore tunnel when she signed an agreement with the city and county last year.

In that agreement—signed in January 2009—Gregoire, former mayor Greg Nickels, and former King County executive Ron Sims said that each government body would pay for its part of the project to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The city, for instance, would be responsible for paying cost overruns on replacing the downtown seawall.

“This suggests to me that you are willing to work to have the State take responsibility for cost overruns for the tunnel,” McGinn wrote.

Today’s missive was a response to a letter send by the governor on April 23 (.pdf). In it, Gregoire wrote, “I remain committed to the agreement I signed with then Mayor Nickels and Executive Sims regarding our respective responsibility for the portions of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project that each of our governments has agreed to undertake.”

To which McGinn has cited that agreement, which says, “[A]llocation of specific project responsibility to each jurisdiction carries with it the responsibility for project management, environmental work, design, construction, and project cost overruns.”

McGinn said earlier this week that he wold veto any bill from the city council that puts the city on the hook for cost overruns on the deep-bore tunnel, a construction project being engineered by the state. After the city approves its end of the deal, requests for proposals are scheduled to go out at the end of the month.

6 replies on “Mayor to Gov: You Said State Would Pay for Tunnel Cost Overruns”

  1. I want to see McGinn and Holmes go to legal war over this. There is no fucking way SEATTLE should be on the hook for the fiscal fuck ups, potential or otherwise, of any third party.

    Any Council members who support this do not support Seattle, and every last one of them automatically should be driven out on rails. Their fiduciary responsibility is to protect and defend Seattle first.

    Build the damn tunnel if you need to: but the city and it’s residents cannot be on the hook for this financially.

  2. I agree with Joe. In fact, I’m dismayed that the City didn’t file immediate suit when the legislation passed last year. Any City in this State would be hopping mad about it; nobody would stand for it, and Seattle should be no different.

    Glad to see McGinn using this line with the Governor. That agreement, championed at an impressive Press Conference last year, held several key components that the State has simply ignore. For the Governor to pretend, now, that she didn’t agree to certain things with the City, is disingenuous; to then, further, criticize the City for attempting to protect itself on this issue is the worst kind of politics.

  3. I actually like the tunnel option (for aesthetic reasons, nothing to do with cost), but I applaud the mayor for taking a stand to make sure the city isn’t on the hook for the inevitable cost overruns from the state’s portion of the project.

  5. Gregoire is one stupid ninny if she thinks she can retain the governor’s mansion after pissing off the electorate in Seattle. Seattle voters are the only reason she’s there – they hate her on the east side of the state.

  6. the three executives also agreed that the state would provide Metro the one percent MVET to both add more service in the AWV corridor and make up the upcoming fiscal crisis, that Sims knew was coming. the deep bore provides bypass capacity. the three governments expect transit to carry more trips oriented town downtown Seattle.

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