(The following story by Tony Bizjak appeared on the Sacramento Bee website on November 7.)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The most expensive stretch of light-rail tracks ever built in Sacramento just got $6 million pricier.
Sacramento Regional Transit officials now say the latest price tag for building the line from Eighth and K streets to the downtown Amtrak depot has hit $46 million. They had earlier seen the cost climb from $35 million to $40 million.
The tentative cost agreement between RT and its private contractor comes nearly a year after the trouble-plagued project was completed.
“We feel we have an understanding; we’re putting it on paper now,” RT interim General Manager Mike Wiley said. “We’ll certainly be relieved to have that behind us.”
Transit officials say they were naive about the difficulties of digging up downtown streets for a rail line. They set an aggressive construction schedule they never came close to meeting. The project took 30 months, more than twice what was expected.
It was slowed by discoveries of unmapped underground utilities that had to be moved, numerous unearthings of American Indian artifacts, intense spring rains in 2006 and a late-hour demand by federal judges that the line be rerouted farther from their courthouse.
“This project was not just struck by lightning, it was struck repeatedly by lightning,” RT board member David Sander said.
Nevertheless, Sander criticized his agency’s handling of the project.
“These are taxpayer dollars, and it is extremely important we invest them as wisely as we can,” Sander said. “Cost over-runs are a sign we are not doing the best we can managing projects.”
It’s the second revelation this week of problems with a rail project in Sacramento.
Sacramento County officials have temporarily shut down a light-rail bridge project over Watt Avenue near Folsom Boulevard after work fell behind schedule and over budget.
The two projects provide a lesson about the difficulties of urban rail projects, officials said.
“I’m getting an education in how complex it is,” Sacramento County transportation chief Tom Zlotkowski said.
“When you’re dealing with rail safety issues, and (regulators) and trying to keep trains running, I’m telling you, it’s a different beast.”
Regional Transit board members Monday night authorized the transfer of reserve capital funds to help cover the escalated cost for the downtown project.
Officials with Stacy and Witbeck Inc., the Alameda-based construction company, did not return Bee phone calls.
The project price tag represents the most by far RT has spent, per mile, on a light-rail track.
At six-tenths of a mile, the track’s cost is the equivalent of $77 million per mile. The previous high – a 2003 line to Meadowview Road – cost $35 million a mile.
A recent Bee review of light-rail projects nationally indicates new lines can range from $20 million a mile to more than $100 million. Costs tend to escalate when light-rail lines require bridges, tunnels, new right of way or go through dense urban areas.
The RT vote Monday came without any public discussion by the board.
RT chief Wiley said staffers had briefed board members beforehand in closed session. The discussion was conducted there because of the potential the issue could end up in court.
In interviews with The Bee, however, several board members expressed disappointment with the rising price tag, but defended the project.
“It still makes sense to build it,” Roger Dickinson said, because it connects the transit system to trains to the Bay Area and the rest of the country.
Wiley said the line to the downtown depot is the first step of a line that is planned to someday extend to the downtown railyards, South and North Natomas and Sacramento International Airport.