Project tweak delays SoMa train station
By: John Upton
Examiner Staff Writer
June 15, 2009
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| Funding injection: The Transbay Transit Center project is banking on a $400 million federal stimulus grant, and will be further delayed if the money doesn’t come through. (Courtesy rendering) |
The planned grand opening of a new Transbay Transit Terminal has been delayed by more than a year.
Directors of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, an agency formed to oversee demolition of the existing center and construction of a new one at the same SoMa site, recently voted unanimously to modify construction plans.
Under the new plan, which will delay the planned debut by 14 months until late 2015, an unfurnished underground train station will be built into the transit center during initial construction efforts.
Under the previous plan, the train station would have been built after the transit center opened for business. Presently, no rail lines connect to the center.
The redesign is slated to include stores on the ground level and a bus terminal on the second level. The terminal’s roof will be a park full of greenery.
The $1.2 billion terminal will be funded through the redevelopment of surrounding land, which will eventually become San Francisco’s main downtown area, featuring a landmark office tower that would be The City’s tallest building.
But the new transit center is also envisioned as an eventual stop for Caltrain and the planned high-speed rail.
The $2 billion needed to extend the rail line from King Street to SoMa, however, has not been secured, and it’s unclear when,
if ever, the needed funds will be available.
Nonetheless, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority is banking on $400 million in federal stimulus funds with which to build an underground train station before the transit center opens, even though that station would at first remain unused.
That would push the initial construction price tag up by one-third to $1.6 billion, but it would save $100 million in the long run because it would be easier to excavate and build the train station before the rest of the center is built, authority staff told directors Thursday before they voted in favor of the new plan.
The Federal Railroad Administration is due to announce in October whether the $400 million in needed stimulus funds will be provided for the project.
If the stimulus funds are not made available, and no other funding can be identified, then up to $15 million worth of engineering and design efforts planned to take place between now and October will be wasted, and the project will open four months behind the original schedule without a train station, staff and consultants told directors.
“I’m a gambling man and I’m willing to roll the dice,” Supervisor Chris Daly, a Transbay Joint Powers Authority director, said during the hearing. “High-speed rail is happening in California. It’s coming to downtown San Francisco. Everyone’s excited, but if [initial construction of the train station] doesn’t happen, we’re in the hole $15 million.”
A temporary terminal is being readied between Main, Beale, Folsom and Howard streets to serve as a bus stop while the Transbay Transit Center is torn down and rebuilt.
jupton@sfexaminer.com
Station to station
Costs and delays due to Transbay Transit Center train station:
$1.6 billion Initial construction costs if the train station is built
$1.2 billion Initial construction costs if the train station is not built
14 months Delay of opening if the train station is built
4 months Delay of opening if the train station is not built
Source: Transbay Joint Powers Authority
