---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jeffery Bowen <jlbowen01@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, Aug 9, 2022 at 10:32 AM
Subject: Project Connect planners reviewing 'hard choices' for light rail
rollout amid rising costs
To:
Community Impact / link checked
https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/transportation/2022/08/05/project-connect-planners-reviewing-hard-choices-for-light-rail-rollout-amid-rising-costs/
Morning,
The development of Austin's multibillion-dollar light rail system remains
in progress, and transportation planners are working to finalize details on
Project Connect's scope and cost in the lead-up to larger decisions on the
program expected to be made next year.
During an Aug. 4 meeting of City Council's mobility committee,
representatives with CapMetro and the Austin Transit Partnership—the group
created to manage Project Connect's rollout—briefed city officials on the
light rail program's next steps and growing costs ahead of its eventual
shift into more formal engineering work and construction.
Project Connect's light rail was initially expected to cost around $5.8
billion to lay out, an estimate that jumped to more than $10 billion
earlier this year as design work continued. Planners have cited inflation,
real estate costs and program design updates as contributors to that
increase and now say the total could grow more based on those trends.
I guess nobody was paying attention to the cost of the above-mentioned
items.
The more than is over $12 billion, but any numbers over the original $10.1
advertised price prior to a reduction in scope to get to the $7.1 billion
ballot price.
“It’s the exact right time for us to be coming to grips with the realities
of the program and making choices. And we’ve got time to make those hard
choices," said Peter Mullan, ATP's chief of architecture and urban design.
“Costs on the program have been rising, and I think we can expect them to
continue to rise based on some things that are within our control and some
things that are not within our control. This is the reality of our world
these days, and so it’s really beholden to us to make sure that, going
forward, that the program is aligned with our funding availability. And so
that’s what we’re committed to doing."
Has a "Dose of Reality" finally sunk in?
*“We’re committed to implementing the vision and doing that without new
taxes. I just want to be clear about that: We are not anticipating at this
point any new taxes to support the program. We have a great funding
mechanism; we’re going to use it," Mullan said. *
Hide and Watch.
Just once a little truth would go a long way. That will not happen as long
as the taxpayers are the "Endless Funders" of this project.
Be Safe
Jeffery L. Bowen
