Major player quits 1 of 2 teams bidding to build Green Line

By Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times staff reporter

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One of two teams competing to build the financially strained Seattle Green Line monorail is scrambling to reorganize itself after a major construction firm quit the project this month.

Kiewit — which anticipated it might earn $250 million to $300 million worth of construction work in the expected $1.3 billion contract — has pulled out of the "Team Monorail" consortium, David Zemek, Kiewit's regional vice president, said yesterday. "There were some risks associated with this project that make it a little less palatable than some of the other projects," he said.

Among other challenges, the monorail's well-publicized shortage in tax revenues likely will make it harder for builders to earn a big profit, agency officials have acknowledged.

Team Monorail is trying to find a replacement company or get other contractors on the team to pick up Kiewit's work before an April 30 deadline to have final teams in place.

Otherwise, the public might be stuck with a choice of just one team — the rival Cascadia Monorail Co. — to bid for one of the biggest public-works projects in Seattle's history.

Team Monorail's plans offer lightweight, maneuverable Bombardier trains resembling those on the new Las Vegas Monorail. Cascadia's plans offer roomier Hitachi trains that have a four-decade track record of reliable operations in Japan.

Despite the instability, Team Monorail leaders expect to compete when the bids are due June 15.

"We're actually more enthusiastic about the project than we were several months ago," said Tom Stone, president of Transmax, which assembled the team.

He cited new state regulations this month that closed a pair of tax loopholes, giving the monorail a more-solid financial foundation.

Another factor is the Bombardier train, which can negotiate very tight turns.
 
Stone said his team hopes to reduce costs by weaving through Seattle predominantly on public right of way, instead of needing wider curves that pass through expensive private land on street corners.

Zemek said the monorail agency "is doing more things right than wrong."

He explained that Kiewit is enjoying a glut of other work. His firm has local contracts for Sound Transit light rail in Sodo, the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the Hood Canal Bridge, and is eyeing highway and light-rail jobs in other states.

At least two other companies are considering a reduced role in Team Monorail.

Granite Construction, which is Bombardier's partner in Las Vegas, will not necessarily keep its lead role in Seattle, said Stone, adding that team changes are not unusual.

Mass. Electric Construction, a prospective supplier of propulsion and signaling systems for Team Monorail, is "in a state of flux" regarding its participation in the project, said Philip Shepley, an executive with the Boston-based company.

Meanwhile, a Cascadia executive got a phone call last week from a company looking to switch to his team from Team Monorail.

Tom Horkan, the Seattle Monorail Project's construction director, met with Team Monorail yesterday and said he still expects both teams to bid.

For months, Horkan has held closed-door talks with the teams to dicker over the details — ranging from train speeds to track positions to bonding requirements — in an effort to balance the agency's desires with what the companies are willing to offer.

Even in the event one of the dueling teams dissolves, the monorail's price tag would not necessarily soar based on the reduced competition.

"We have to have a very competitive project, or there won't be any monorail; the project won't be financeable," said Six Silva, a senior vice president for one of the Cascadia partners, Boise-based Washington Group International.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com

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