TRANSPORTATION UPDATES Project Connect rail cost jumps
COMPILED BY DARCY SPRAGUE & BEN THOMPSON
ONGOING PROJECTS
PROJECT CONNECT RAIL LINE COSTS INCREASE $4.5B As Austin’s Project Connect team moves from its 15% design to 30% design stage this summer, planners say factors such as real estate and construction costs and inflation are upping project costs 77%.
W. STASSNEY LN.
Original estimate (5% design stage)
Revised estimate (draft 30% design stage)
BY BEN THOMPSON
New cost estimates show a 77% spike in cost as planning for Project Connect’s Orange and Blue light-rail lines is on track to progress from the 15% to 30% design stages this summer. Austin voters approved a $7.1 billion package for Project Connect in November 2020 to expand the city’s bus and rail network. At the 5% design stage, estimates for the light-rail lines totaled $5.8 billion: the Orange Line at $2.5 billion, the Blue Line at $1.3 billion and extensive tunnel work for both tracks at $2 billion. Now, heading into the 30% design phase, those figures have jumped to $10.3 billion. Transit officials said the $4.5 billion revision, including $600 million more for the Blue Line and around $2 billion each for the Orange Line and tunnel, has several causes.
$1.3 billion
Blue Line
$1.9 billion
N
$2.5 billion
Orange Line
Emerald Forest Drive connectivity The Austin Department of Transpor- tation is upgrading bike lanes and installing new pedestrian crossings on Emerald Forest Drive to improve connectivity and safety in the area. The work includes adding protective barriers along existing bike lanes and adding three pedestrian crossings at Austin Highlands Boulevard, Speer Lane and Gobi Drive. The road will remain open throughout construction. Timeline: April 2022-end of May 2022 Cost: $800,000 Funding source: 2016 mobility bond
$4.3 billion
$2 billion
Tunnel
$4.1 billion
0
$1B
$2B
$3B
$4B
$5B
SOURCE: CAPITAL METRO/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Among those is a “significant” increase in land acquisition costs along the proposed rail lines given Austin’s hot real estate market and nationwide inflation that is driving up the construction budget. Officials said the new estimates will not affect Project Connect’s voter-approved tax rate, but the extra cost could affect the timeline
of the project. “The Project Connect program is not immune to the global and national economic pressures that everyone is feeling. Transit, air- port, highway, utility, housing and commercial projects are all seeing cost increases,” Project Connect Program Officer David Couch wrote in an April 7 memo.
ALL INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE WAS UPDATED AS OF MAY 13. NEWS OR QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE OR OTHER LOCAL TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS? EMAIL US AT SWANEWS@COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM.
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SOUTHWEST AUSTIN - DRIPPING SPRINGS EDITION • MAY 2022
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