About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Friday, September 8, 2023

More on Bus Base North

  


Previous posts have questioned what gave the Sound Transit System Expansion Committee and subsequently approved by Board the authority to approve on a Bus Base North that wasn’t included in ST3 funding.  In particular, their approval of Resolution No. R2023-17 with the following:


Proposed action:

Adopts the Bus Base North Stride Bus Rapid Transit project baseline schedule and budget by (a) increasing the authorized project allocation to-date by $216,463,500 from $283,036,500 to $499,500,000.

Again the $283,036,500 was not authorized by ST3 so where did they get the “authority”?  The 2019 Financial Plan and Adopted Budget included the following regarding Bus Base North:

Additionally, construct a bus operations and maintenance facility to support both the I-405 Bus Rapid Transit and the SR 522/NE 145th St. Bus Rapid Transit projects. 

It was a 2019 TIP that “authorized spending $243,443 thousand on 44th Interchange and property acquisition for Bus Base North. Again, despite ST3 Map PDF specifically listing Bus Maintenance Facility as “Not Included.” 


Apparently, the authorized Bus Base North funding  increased to $283,036,500 in R2023-17 as EFC in Sound Transit's June Agency Progress Report  The July report and 2023 Financial Plan and Adopted Budget included the following addition:


 Project Cost Summary

As part of the Sound Transit Board approval the Baseline budget, the Authorized Project Allocation has been increased by $216.5M. 

A significant increase over a short period time without any board comment. The budget included the financing detail in System Expansion T500070 BRT Maintenance Base “Financial Plan Project Estimate (2022 $000s)


Voter-approved Cost Estimate.  $231,478


Again, despite the fact the ST3 package voters approved in 2016 did not include funding for maintenance facility. 


Even more absurd Sound Transit decreed East King County would provide $215,391,000 of the $283,036,000.  That Snohomish would pay $9,340,000 despite the fact the base was in Snohomish County and that far more of the facilities 120-bus capacity would be used by SCT buses than the 44 buses needed for I-405 BRT and Stride routes.


Does anyone doubt how Sound Transit will fund the additional $216M they’ve budgeted for the base?

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