West Seattle Link Expansion Could Cost $7 Billion

Sound Transit revealed higher-than-expected projected cost overruns for the West Seattle Link Extension project, reports Ryan Packer in The Urbanist, but the Sound Transit board indicated it would continue to support the project without considering alternative options. The project is now estimated to cost as much as $7.1 billion, close to $3 billion more than initial projections.

According to Packer, “Even as the agency touts internal reforms that it says could bring some of these cost increases down to more manageable levels and help Sound Transit regain some ground, there are storm clouds brewing when it comes to the affordability of the entire Sound Transit 3 program.”

Packer outlines other potential options that could save the agency money, such as the Elevated Fauntleroy Way alternative, which could reduce costs by as much as $850 million. But according to Sound Transit CEO Goran Sparrman, “The reality is that the kind of cost escalation we’re seeing on the preferred alignment, that is a largely [sic] driven by broader market forces, so I don’t know that we would expect to see significant lower cost in any other alternatives.”

For Packer, the cost increases pose a broader question about the future of the ST3 program and the Ballard Link project, a ‘sister project’ to the West Seattle extension that could cost $11.2 billion.