From the Bellingham Herald:
Law is clear: Bertha overruns are not state burden
The attempt to run a highway underneath downtown Seattle has become such a fiasco that it may come to rival Boston’s Big Dig in notoriety.
Part of the fiasco is the effort to wriggle out of the Legislature’s 2009 decision to cap the state’s risk at $2.8 billion. In plain English, lawmakers specified that further overruns would be borne by those who stood to profit handsomely from the project, which is to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct that carries state Route 99 through Seattle.
That overrun protection is becoming increasingly important as Bertha — the massive drill boring the tunnel — remains stuck 60 feet underground with the meter running. A year ago December, Bertha ground to a halt a ninth of the way into its 1.7-mile journey. The $80 million machine now needs an expensive overhaul, and the most optimistic estimate for the project’s completion has slipped from November 2016 to August 2017.
It’s hard at this point to figure out who’s to blame. We want to believe it’s the Japanese manufacturer or the contractor, Seattle Tunnel Partners, as opposed to the state Department of Transportation. STP appears to have ignored a clearly marked steel pipe on the route, which Bertha hit.
If the blunder belongs to the partnership, it will own the overruns. But people who build tunnels tend to be pretty good at shifting unexpected bills to their government employers.
In the meantime, the tunnel project keeps making headlines in a bad way — cracking walls and a street in Pioneer Square, for example. The delays heighten the risk that the viaduct itself may have to close before the alternative is open, pushing commuters into city streets and Interstate 5 lanes, paralyzing the urban heart of Western Washington.
Fortunately, the State Legislature took some precautions:
Lawmakers anticipated this scenario in 2009 when they specified $2.8 billion as the hard cap on the state’s share of the tunnel. They drew the line there because Seattle’s political leaders had rejected a rebuild of the viaduct, the least expensive option, and pushed for the more expensive tunnel.
But of course, that never stopped a progressive politician fishing for votes:
Seattle leaders have never liked that provision, and they’re liking it less and less as the project’s troubles multiply. State officials who need the city’s votes, including Gov. Jay Inslee, have said the requirement is unenforceable.
And the rest of us in WA State get stuck making a couple corporations and property owners very very rich.
Leave a comment