The Sound Transit Board in Washington has embraced a new vision for transportation after adopting the latest update for the Sound Transit Three (ST3) System Plan. The plan highlights billions in capital projects, including more than $55.9 billion for fully funded initiatives and $1.8 billion for projects that are either partially funded or funded through the planning and design phases.
The plan charts a comprehensive path toward completing major transit construction projects. However, while these initiatives are in motion, Sound Transit still has a roughly $34.8 billion funding gap over the next two decades.
To resolve the gap, the ST3 plan has prioritized projects that are feasible and affordable for completion. The document contains a list of projects that will be deferred until additional funding enables the board to follow through with them.
Of the projects that have been determined as affordable with existing resources, the following are the fully funded initiatives with the highest associated cost:
- Ballard Link initial segment for the Seattle Center – $17.8 billion.
- S Kirland to Issaquah Link – $8.3 billion.
- West Seattle Link – $6.8 billion.
- Tacoma Dome Link – $6.6 billion.
- Phase 1 for Everett Link – $6.1 billion.
The following projects are either partially funded or have received funding through the design and planning phases:
- Sounder South additional trips – $1.1 billion.
- Ballard Link – $300 million.
- ST4 Planning and High-Capacity Transit Corridor Studies – $106 million.
- Regional Parking Fund – $100 million.
- ST Express Bus Base – $100 million.
- Boeing Access Road Link Infill Station – $52 million.
- Sounder Extension to DuPont – $17 million.
All active light rail projects currently in the design or planning phases are slated to begin construction in 2028 or later. These include West Seattle, Tacoma Dome, Everett, Ballard, Graham Street Station and Boeing Access Road Station.
Prioritizing these fully and partially funded capital projects is part of the Sound Transit CEO’s directive to develop an adaptive program management plan to avoid future challenges and overcome the projected $34.5 billion deficit. Key elements of the management framework will include:
- Creating a programmatic plan detailing how the agency manages projects and operates the system.
- Implementing decision-making measures designed to support a process for reviewing costs, risks and schedules at major milestones of project development, giving the board more options to prevent financial challenges.
- Improving program-level oversight through comprehensive, thorough reporting that aligns with relevant management. This oversight will help identify cost savings and increase financial capacity for ST3 projects
Restraining infrastructure improvements only to those projects that are within the scope of current resources ensures that the board will not take on more work than it can pay to finish. The agency will also continue to utilize cost efficiency measures, seek federal and state funding and leverage legislative tools to keep projects moving forward.
The board also established an Enterprise workplan to be implemented alongside the ST3 System Plan to aid decision-making processes for identifying, assessing and implementing worthwhile opportunities that empower agency operations. This will revolve around an Equitable Decision-Making Framework that emphasizes collaboration, transparent governance and evidence-based analysis to guide management and investment.
Photo by Seattle Municipal Archives from Seattle, WA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, from Wikimedia Commons
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