$6.5M Transit Center Now $11M

When the transit center was approved, it required $6.5M in federal transportation funds. Last June the price went up to $10.5M, and last night Council voted to obtain another $400,000 in state and federal funding for the project, John Yellig reports in today’s Daily Progress. The price increase comes from a combination of design changes, weak soil, and the discovery of abandoned fuel storage tanks and old storm sewers on the site. Councilor Rob Schilling voted against requesting the funding, with Councilor Kendra Hamilton saying that doing so would prevent the building from being finished, which isn’t an option.

Walking by there yesterday, it looked like the digging is done and the bulk of the cement for the foundation and the walls had been poured. It looks a lot smaller than I thought it would — I don’t think it’ll be as out of scale for the area as I thought it might be, though the amphitheater and the huge new building on Fifth and Water have set an entirely new scale for the area in the past year.

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