Steve Shay
Richard Conlin today took the oath of office as President, Seattle City Council. He is pictured discussing the tunnel option with teacher and activist, Noam Gundle at the reception following the inauguration.

Richard Conlin takes oath, talks tunnel

By Steve Shay
01/04/2010

Today, Jan. 4, As Mike McGinn was inaugurated, Richard Conlin too took the oath of office, as Seattle City Council President. He took time at the reception that followed on the second floor of City Hall to talk to the West Seattle Herald.

"My number one goal is to build a strong team with the mayor so that the mayor and the Council are working together instead of, as we sometimes have in the past been at cross purposes, so keeping those communication lines going, really making things happen in a positive way. That's what the public expect with us. They don't want us to fight with each other.

"My personal goal is to get transit-oriented development really working. We're getting all these transit lines going, and getting Rapid Ride into West Seattle. We really want to get the transit and the housing connected.

"We're not going to be responsible for cost overruns on the tunnel. There won't be any cost overruns. The reason that the Big Dig (tunnel in Boston) had cost overruns in Boston is that they did too much at once. 'Wash-DOT' (Washington Department of Transportation) has changed its cost estimate (for the Seattle tunnel.) There is a 35- percent reserve for unexpected contingencies. Almost $900 million is reserve, and has not been allocated. They changed their estimating procedure."

  • share
  • Post to Twitter

We encourage our readers to comment. No registration is required. We ask that you keep your comments free of profanity and keep them civil. They are moderated and objectionable comments will be removed.

Comments

Conlin on the Tunnel

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 1:53pm.

I was pictured in that picture of the story.

Conlin said clearly that he favors transit oriented development (which is great) but is also fully supporting a 4 billion dollar tunnel that has NO plans for transit, biking or walking infrastructure improvements. I asked him about this and he said that "Seattle has to pay for these things". When I asked how, he had no answer.

He also had no response (at least a coherent one) when I questioned him why the state did NOT choose one of the options supported by the Viaduct stakeholders group (new viaduct or streets and transit/I-5 improvements). It was all pass the buck, it seemed.

We need leadership for real transit, real development that benefits people. I greatly respect Conlin, but I do think he can do better.