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Sound Transit warns of $34.5 billion affordability gap as Seattle officials press on cost sharing and station impacts
Summary
Sound Transit briefed the City Council Feb. 23 on the enterprise initiative and ST3 project status, citing a $34.5 billion gap in cost savings or new funding and announcing key openings (Cross Lake connection March 28). Council members pressed agency staff on alignment with Seattle’s land‑use changes and on the city’s share of downtown tunnel costs.
Sound Transit delivered a briefing to the Seattle City Council on Feb. 23 outlining the agency’s enterprise initiative, current project timelines and the tradeoffs the board will consider to keep the ST3 program affordable.
Alex Krieg, Sound Transit’s enterprise planning lead, told councilmembers the agency has identified a large shortfall as part of its affordability work: "the agency must identify $34,500,000,000 in cost savings and or new funding to deliver the full ST3 program." He said that figure reflects updated cost data across multiple projects, cost risks tied to operations and higher prices for new light‑rail vehicles.
Sound…
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