Sound Transit Might be Able to Save Nearly $26 Million on Sounder Extension Project due to Competitive Bidding Climate

Tucked away in a recent Sound Transit CEO report I saw an interesting piece of information that caught my eye.

Sound Transit but out to bid the D to M Street Sounder expansion project. This is a critical component of extending the Sounder to Lakewood and in the past was the source  of much media attention in Tacoma.  Apparently the estimates for the project were $66.4 million and the construction bid came back last week drastically cheaper at $40.8 million.  This is another sign that in this economy it is not a bad time to be constructing transportation projects from the perspective of the agencies and tax payers.

Here is the whole report from Sound Transit:

D-M construction bids come in under estimate

We learned on Tuesday that the apparent low bidder for construction of our D-M street project in Tacoma, MidMountain Contractors of Kirkland, was $40.8 million or about $25.6 million below our engineer’s estimate of $66.4 million.
The MidMountain bid is being evaluated by Sound Transit to make sure it meets all our project requirements. Seven bids were submitted.
Construction is expected to begin this summer on the D-M project, which includes a 1.2-mile section of rail corridor connecting Tacoma Dome Station at Freighthouse Square to existing rail right-of-way. When it’s finished in 2012, Sounder trains will begin running to stations in South Tacoma and Lakewood.