1 Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel Meeting Summary February ...

Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel
Meeting Summary
February 7, 2013
COP Members Present: Annette Bailes, Josh Benaloh, Aubrey Davis, Bob Goldstein, Phil
Lovell, Dave Russell, Stuart Scheuerman, Vic Sood, Paul Wiesner, Harold Wirch
COP Members Absent: Bruce Seiber, JD Wessling
Others Present: Kathy Albert, Armica Bash, David Beal, Don Billen, Ahmad Fazel, Scott
Kirkpatrick, Kate Lichtenstein, Ron Lewis, John Sleavin, Kathy Elias, members of the public
East Link Update
Ron Lewis started with an overview of the East Link project: 14.5 miles from the International
District to Overlake Transit Center, spanning four cities and including 10 stations and three park
and ride facilities. The preliminary engineering is complete, the final environmental impact
statement is published, the federal record of decision is in hand, and final design is now
underway at 60% design. The design work is being managed in three segments: I-90, Bellevue to
Overlake and systems. The track alignment has been finalized, landscaping, lighting and art
programs are being designed, station finishes are being selected, construction packages identified
and the procurement strategy developed, right of way certification is taking place, costs are being
updated and permits applied for. Public outreach will ask for input on such issues as station
design elements, bicycle storage, pedestrian and bus connections, and art.
Asked about the potential risks of spreading the design work among multiple contracts, Lewis
said several factors mitigate the risk: design criteria and specifications are integrated across the
system, the design teams are all co-located at Sound Transit offices and are all required to work
together. John Sleavin added that ST has a design criteria manual that covers everything from
track to ventilation to seismic safety. Building and permitting codes are coordinated with local
jurisdictions and WSDOT and there is a commonality of major system elements. ST has also
retained national experts on certain elements such as tunnel ventilation.
Of the 23 issues identified by the Independent Review Team related to the I-90 floating bridge,
seven have been closed, 10 more will be closed during the 60% design stage, and six will remain
for completion thereafter. The track bridge crossing has been broken out as a separate project
with a separate contractor. An innovative “cesura” design has been selected that allows the joints
to move in all three dimensions. The design has been modeled and tested; the next stage of
development involves building a prototype which will be tested at a facility on Colorado where
the movements and stresses will be measured. The actual track bridge will be built in Tacoma
using off-the-shelf components such as bearings, clips and expansion joints. Metal fatigue
testing was carried out at the University of Washington and found to be well below fatigue levels.
The goal is for the track bridge to function at 45 mph 95% of the time.
Don Billen reported on the status of the Bellevue cost savings process. After selection of three
1

cost savings modifications by the Board last October, a SEPA addendum is being prepared and
will be published in March, with decisions by the ST Board and the City anticipated in April. All
three ideas involve getting the alignment out of the ground so are very likely to yield real savings.
The construction delivery plan for the Bellevue to Overlake segment has been identified and the
I-90 segment and systems plans are in development. The Bellevue to Overlake segment is
proposed to be divided into four contracts: South Bellevue as design-bid-build; Downtown as
GC/CM; Bel-Red as GC/CM; and SR 520 as design-build. The factors influencing the choice are
the complexity of the segment and whether it is at-grade, elevated or in a tunnel. Asked whether
any joint development is anticipated, Lewis said ST is pursuing a public-private partnership at
the 120 th Street Station; also a pedestrian bridge at Overlake Transit Center is being considered,
with funding from the City of Redmond.
The schedule has the project baselined in the spring of 2014 and construction starting 2015. The
final design stage budget is $757 million, with $200 M committed. The estimated final cost is
trending on budget. Challenges include the financial impacts of the recession on revenues; timely
decision making by the City of Bellevue on code amendments, cost savings options and technical
solutions; maintaining the final design schedule; 3 rd party coordination; and upward cost
pressures on the project. Asked what would happen if the park and ride capacity fills up, Billen
said it will fill up. Height limits preclude the parking structures going higher. Local transit will
have to maximize feeder service to the stations. Asked how the project is using the lessons
learned from the other Link segments, Lewis said he is in frequent contact with Joe Gildner and
Don Davis and is focused on a high degree of systems coordination.
Transit-Oriented Development
David Beal introduced the presentation, saying that TOD has been busy the past year, especially
with the newly developed TOD policy and the Capitol Hill TOD term sheet developed with the
City and the community. Kate Lichtenstein described the Board direction leading to the new
policy: consolidate and update the existing TOD policies in one document; maintain the transit
mission; encourage TOD to increase ridership; emphasize coordination and partnerships; assess
TOD early in system and project planning; and involve the Board and stakeholders. After
reviewing other agencies’ policies and meeting with over 20 stakeholder groups, staff brought a
draft policy to the Board in October. In December the final policy was adopted.
The policy framework established a goal to focus growth around transit facilities and leverage
transit investments to help produce regional and local benefits. Other goals include increasing
ridership, supporting plans, economic development, and protecting and enhancing assets. The
strategies involve the dual goal of both agency TOD and community TOD where the local
jurisdiction leads the process. A key provision is allowing early TOD assessment during
development of plans and projects, and coordinating with the Phase Gate process.
Scott Kirkpatrick said that ST can now do station-area planning and can do more to participate in
and support community planning. Asked what remedies Sound Transit has available if a
developer wanted to build a widget factory on a TOD site, Kirkpatrick stated that ST issues RFPs
with strong covenants and encumbrances that specify the type of development being sought. The
proposer must sign and be bound by the covenants. ST also has the ability to screen proposers
2

for financial capacity and will not close a sale until all building permits are in hand.
Current activities in the TOD pipeline include the Capitol Hill term sheet to develop five parcels
near the Capitol Hill Station; this will be the largest-ever TOD at 500,000 square feet. The term
sheet will go before the Seattle City Council in the April/May time frame. Another major TOD is
the Mount Baker Lofts project which is within weeks of closing and will provide 57 units of livework
space with no parking on site. The South 200 th Angle Lake site is out for early marketing to
the hospitality industry to assess feasibility of a hotel. No Sound Transit TOD has gone out this
early before. The Orcas/Centioli TOD on Martin Luther King Way was a proposed 70-unit
project that fell through. ST is completing procurement documents for remediation on the site.
On the Lynnwood extension, staff are providing technical assistance to the cities of Shoreline and
Mountlake Terrace. On the East Link extension 130 th Station, staff are providing technical
assistance in collaboration with the City of Bellevue.
Asked what safeguards are in place to protect against potential conflicts of interest or abuse,
Kirkpatrick replied that since money is involved, there is always a risk, but ST uses a fair and
open process based on business decisions and fair market value. An example arose where
community members wanted to be involved in selecting and negotiating with the developers and
ST said No. Asked about the funding for the new TOD staff positions, Beal explained that one of
the positions was transferred from planning and charged to the agency budget; the new half-time
position is assigned to ST3 planning and will be charged to the projects. Other costs are borne in
the Sound Move lifetime TOD planning budget of $1.64 million which in 2013 still has a balance
of $495,000. A new TOD surplus property budget of $5.6 M lifetime is used to prepare property
no longer needed for transit purposes; $4.4 M remains in that fund.
How does ST coordinate with the PSRC’s transit-oriented planning efforts? The PSRC looked
regionally at 72 intermodal station sites in a much broader way and ST was engaged in that
process for its sites. A member noted that the Roosevelt community had no technical assistance
in its station-area planning, either from the City or from ST. Kirkpatrick said this was a big
concern for the Board and perhaps the single biggest impetus for the new policy.
Discussion
Members discussed the Draft COP Year-End report and made suggestions for changes:
On page 2, the suggested recommendation for a one one-page, side by side comparison of
budget-to-budget and forecast-to-budget percentages was good.
Another useful suggestion would be to break out the current service budget plus additions
due to new projects or services.
COP should also encourage actual-to-actual comparisons for multiple years.
The terminology of phrases like “budget,” “forecast” and “actual” can be very confusing
and should be clarified.
The budget-to-budget presentation is required by the state’s BARS reporting requirements
but there is nothing to say that ST cannot provide additional formats. Local jurisdictions
generally do this.
Management has been convincing that the agency is in fact using actual spending data
3

and that it is all there.
Capital budgets can be tricky and underspending in a given year is very common.
On page 3, the new statement regarding Board engagement is much more constructive
than the earlier draft.
On page 11, the table needs an explanatory statement about the use of the term “forecast.”
Should there be a sentence added in the report to say that COP is considering a task force
to review multiple years of Sound Transit performance? The chair and vice chair are still
considering options for the scope of such a task force and will bring back a
recommendation to a future meeting.
Members decided to add a sentence to the cover letter and to the body stating that COP
was considering creating a task force.
Kathy Elias explained that the table on page 10 showing subarea reserves may have been a
miscommunication with staff. Pending a conversation with Finance, that table might be changed
or deleted from the report.
The report as amended was moved, seconded and approved unanimously.
Members next discussed the presentation on East Link:
The basic logic of which contracting model to use for each segment can be described as:
design-bid-build for straightforward, low risk construction; GC/CM for more complex
construction with unknowns and more value engineering needed and tighter risk
management; the design-build model is also for fairly straightforward projects where a
high degree of control by the owner is not needed.
ST recently sent five persons to a training on GC/CM and appears to be interested in
building the agency’s staff capacity to manage these types of contracts.
Member Reports
Dave Russell reported that he attended a forum on TOD and joint development best
practices. FTA regional administrator Rick Krochalis was one of the presenters as were
staff from ST, King County and Portland.
Harold Wirch reported that route 511 continues to be overcrowded in the peak.
Aubrey Davis reported that he attended the Mercer Island WSDOT public meeting on
tolling I-90. Mercer Islanders do not want tolls.
Josh Benaloh said he attended the Bellevue version of the tolling meeting where the
citizens were not quite as vociferous. He also attended a meeting on the status of the SR
520 bridge construction. It is not well recognized that the new bridge does not touch
down on the west end with all six lanes.
Next Meeting
The next COP meeting was set for February 21, 2013, 8:30 to 11:00 am.
4