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Speaking of Seattle, the 99 tunnel was pretty large in scope with the world's largest tunnel boring machine. Construction started in 2013 and opened to traffic

Speaking of Seattle, the 99 tunnel was pretty large in scope with the world's largest tunnel boring machine. Construction started in 2013 and opened to traffic in 2019. "Boring of the tunnel with the 57.5-foot (17.5 m) diameter "Bertha," at the time the world's largest-diameter tunnel-boring machine, began on July 30, 2013,[69][70] and at the time was expected to be completed in 14 months" [1] We also have the lightrail projects with total funding of over $54 billion. Pretty large in scope with variability in success and budget[2] [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Route_99_tunnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Route_99_tunnel [2]https://www.constructiondive.com/news/seattle-area-light-rail-transportation-plan-busting-54b-budget/549892/ https://www.constructiondive.com/news/seattle-area-light-rai...

com2kid 4y ago
> Pretty large in scope with variability in success and budget[2] Sound Transit would have better luck if they weren't forced to work under so many constraints. Because money trickles in slowly, and because funding has to come from different cities in a predetermined way, they are stuck with speculators buying up property before Sound Transit is allowed to, and then selling it to ST for inflated prices. Cities that need mass transit right now are not allowed to pay for transit to be built faster in their area. And of course everyone loves to sue them, costing even more $. I still have not figured out why the holy hell there isn't commercial real estate built along with all sound transit stations. We have these large expensive stations that are devoid of any commercial activity, meanwhile Japan sticks Michelin Star restaurants in their transit stations. The Roosevelt station is a notable example of this, huge station, takes up lots of the block, and it is tall, why aren't there at least 2 or even 3 levels of retail space in it?
- scythe 4y ago
  >I still have not figured out why the holy hell there isn't commercial real estate built along with all sound transit stations. We have these large expensive stations that are devoid of any commercial activity, meanwhile Japan sticks Michelin Star restaurants in their transit stations. In general, the opposite complaint has been raised: US station platforms are too large! I don't know how they do it in Japan, but the train station in Rome has all of the services above ground in a normal building, away from the tracks, while when I've seen coffeeshops and the like at subways in the US, they're often on the platform or at least underground. DC has some truly cavernous stations full of a lot of signs and stale air (and not much else). So it seems like part of the problem is that the subway authority is confined to an unreasonably tight definition of where they can operate, and then they try to cram a camel through the eye of the needle.

com2kid 4y ago

> Pretty large in scope with variability in success and budget[2] Sound Transit would have better luck if they weren't forced to work under so many constraints. Because money trickles in slowly, and because funding has to come from different cities in a predetermined way, they are stuck with speculators buying up property before Sound Transit is allowed to, and then selling it to ST for inflated prices. Cities that need mass transit right now are not allowed to pay for transit to be built faster in their area. And of course everyone loves to sue them, costing even more $. I still have not figured out why the holy hell there isn't commercial real estate built along with all sound transit stations. We have these large expensive stations that are devoid of any commercial activity, meanwhile Japan sticks Michelin Star restaurants in their transit stations. The Roosevelt station is a notable example of this, huge station, takes up lots of the block, and it is tall, why aren't there at least 2 or even 3 levels of retail space in it?

scythe 4y ago
>I still have not figured out why the holy hell there isn't commercial real estate built along with all sound transit stations. We have these large expensive stations that are devoid of any commercial activity, meanwhile Japan sticks Michelin Star restaurants in their transit stations. In general, the opposite complaint has been raised: US station platforms are too large! I don't know how they do it in Japan, but the train station in Rome has all of the services above ground in a normal building, away from the tracks, while when I've seen coffeeshops and the like at subways in the US, they're often on the platform or at least underground. DC has some truly cavernous stations full of a lot of signs and stale air (and not much else). So it seems like part of the problem is that the subway authority is confined to an unreasonably tight definition of where they can operate, and then they try to cram a camel through the eye of the needle.