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Project Title & Location
Pt. Defiance Bypass-Phase 1, Pierce Co., WA
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Project Description
Constructs and upgrades part of the mainline tracks along a 20-mile corridor for passenger service. Results in 6-minute reduction in Seattle-Portland schedule.
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Contractor/Consultant
Sound Transit, Seattle, and Tacoma Rail, Tacoma
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Recent Progress
WSDOT is continuing the design and environmental work to construct improvements that will allow Amtrak Cascades trains to use the bypass route without being delayed by freight or Sounder commuter trains. This will also reduce travel times between Seattle/Tacoma and Portland by six minutes. The design work remains on schedule and on budget.
WSDOT continues to coordinate with Sound Transit to ensure the WSDOT project is compatible with the Sound Transit Lakewood Extension project. WSDOT and Sound Transit continue to negotiate an agreement for Sound Transit to administer the construction, with WSDOT to purchase the property required for the WSDOT-driven improvements.
A revised construction estimate was received from the design consultant in February 2008, the first that segregated the costs between Sound Transit and WSDOT work. The costs for both WSDOT and Sound Transit increased from the previous estimates. The WSDOT portion of the work, with real estate costs added, is about $8.5 million above the project funding of $59.584 million. About half of this is due to higher than anticipated real estate costs and the other half is due to inflation in steel and other materials.
For some time WSDOT and Sound Transit have been cooperatively seeking funds to fill a $75 million funding shortfall in a key Sound Transit project phase between D st. and M St., including a new bridge over Pacific Ave. The alternative funding sources identified so far are anticipated to yield less than the required $75 million. Neither WSDOT nor Sound Transit can realize the benefits of the improvements planned for construction this year until the D St. to M St. improvements are completed. Sound Transit intends to move forward with their first phase of construction between M St. in Tacoma and their new station in Lakewood. However, WSDOT has subsequently decided to limit the WSDOT-funded construction to areas where the WSDOT improvements and the Sound Transit improvements conflict so that reconstruction in the future by WSDOT is minimized. This will result in WSDOT constructing only about $9 million worth of construction initially, with the remainder of the WSDOT-driven improvements being built in a later phase once the Sound Transit funding shortfall is filled. This will likely result in higher costs to WSDOT, but no estimate for the higher cost is available at this time.
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Design Construction Impacts
The impacts to rail transportation during construction will be minor, as three day work windows are planned for, allowing freight operations four days per week as is typical today. As grade crossings are upgraded, some road restrictions and closures will be required. In advance of these closures, the contractor and construction office will coordinate with WSDOT's Olympic Region, the cities of Tacoma, Lakewood, and DuPont, as well as Fort Lewis and Camp Murray, to ensure restrictions and closures are well planned and minimize impacts to traffic.
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Environmental Impacts / Compliance
A NEPA Categorical Exclusion is being prepared. Some noise impacts to surrounding residences are expected, due to increased numbers and the speeds of trains, as well as, from train horns at the grade crossings.
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Impacts to Traffic
With the removal of passenger trains from the congested main line around Point Defiance, freight rail traffic on that route will see fewer congestion delays. More trains passing over the grade crossings in south Tacoma, Lakewood, and DuPont, will cause minor delays to motorists which will be mitigated by improved traffic signal coordination.
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