New Tacoma Link Stop
Yes that's right, the 11th street station is well underway. The Tacoma Daily Index first broke the news that the City of Tacoma was about to have a study session about the new stop. Legally, the new station is headed to the City of Tacoma Council as a resolution on September 14th and then finally to the Sound Transit Board on September 23rd. Construction is supposed to begin in January and be complete in March. I was live-tweeting about the study session which can be found archived at TV Tacoma here under 8-31-2010.
Murray Morgan Bridge Cash Infusion
WSDOT apparently came out of nowhere and asked Tacoma if they would like a $20 million 0% interest loan according to this detailed writeup in the News Tribune. According to the article, the City of Tacoma had already secured about $37 million for the project and was seeking $24 million more. With this loan, it is expected that work can proceed quickly and all at once.
NOT ON OUR BUS!
Pierce Transit is beefing up security and enforcement of proper conduct on buses. Pierce Transit notes in a following press release that:
Nearly 750 contacts were made, resulting in 68 ninety-day exclusions from Pierce Transit services for disorderly behavior or criminal activity.As always, the News Tribune has a good writeup about the program here.
Downtown Tacoma Parking Update
The first parking pay station was installed outside Paddy Coyne's on August 24th. The Tacoma Daily Index had a good writeup of the action. About 10 stations are being installed 5 days a week through Labor Day. Parking will go live on September 20th. Also, remember, tomorrow is the last Parking Task Force meeting before parking goes live. Did you know that Downtown Tacoma Parking even has a twitter and facebook account?
Chip Seal on 12th
An error in laying down the chip seal on S 12th is costing the City of Tacoma $56,171 to redo.
Highways:
I-5/SR-18 Interchange
Work has broke ground on upgrading this interchange. The work will include two flyover ramps - westbound to southbound and eastbound to northbound. Again, H/T to the News Tribune. Also, here is WSDOT's official project page for this interchange.
Investigation of SR 16 error
Following up on the costly mistake of putting an ramp in the wrong place, a report was issued regarding the messed and WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond did a Q&A with News Tribune readers.