Mike Lindblom reports:
As a bid deadline nears and pressure mounts, Washington state has sweetened its Highway 99 tunnel contract by offering a pair of bid teams $230 million in concessions.
But this doesn’t foreshadow the sort of cost overruns on the mega-project that the state says would be impossible—the ones that typically run 34 percent on tunnel projects—does it?
The changes reflect a view by construction executives that the real costs are higher on this world-record project than the state projected several months ago.
The state has also lost two bidders on the project and the vaunted $415 million in reserves to cover cost overruns is now down to $235 million, less than 10 percent of the $2.8 billion project. Read the whole thing.
I think what you mean is that Washington State taxpayers went into debt $230 million MORE for the before-cost-overrun “price” of the Billionaires’ Tunnel.
Can you hear the giant sucking sound as the Tunnel absorbs all your sidewalk repair money and parking rates jack up to pay for it?
Cause that’s what’s happening.
Clearly there are people out there whose fear hasn’t yet been mongered sufficiently. Get to it!
@1 Will
Needs more “Billionaires Tunnel” talking points. Seriously, your off your game if you only mention it once or twice. Time to change the colotomy bag?
Uh, they haven’t even signed a contract and they’re already offering bonuses. And if negotiations go the way they normally do, there will be much more of thi$.
And with more conservatives piling into the state legislature, this is about to get real nasty.
Once again, the severe lack of a SLOG “I love Baconcat” t-shirt becomes readily apparent.
How odd it would be if we have Tea Baggers to thank if the tunnel gets killed.
Just tear it down. Starting tomorrow.
Heck, I volunteer to swing the first sledgehammer.
@7 you’d get more accomplished with just a roll of det cord and four rolls of foil duct tape, actually.
Isn’t this by definition a cost overrun?