Monorail project down to one bidder

By Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Other links Seattle Monorail Project press release Team Monorail's letter of withdrawal (15K PDF)

The Cascadia Monorail team will submit the lone bid this month for roughly $1.3 billion worth of guideways, stations and Hitachi trains.

Jon Magnusson, a Seattle structural engineer who criticized the project last spring, said the need for public scrutiny is greater than ever. "The point is, you don't have a choice anymore," he said.

Among the reasons Bombardier, one of the world's largest train suppliers, pulled out was because its team couldn't provide financial guarantees by the Aug. 16 bid deadline.

So does a single bidder mean a higher price to taxpayers, because there's less competition?

Does a single bidder mean the city gets a lesser design?

Monorail executives insist the loss of a team will not diminish the project's credibility or the odds of getting it built.

"While we had hoped to receive proposals from two contractor teams, from the outset this process has anticipated that, eventually, we'd be dealing with one team," said a statement yesterday by Joel Horn, Seattle Monorail Project (SMP) executive director. "Whether we receive one proposal or two, the successful proposal must still meet all our rigorous criteria to ensure that the taxpayer is protected."

Nils Finne, a board member for this fall's anti-monorail Initiative 83 campaign, called Horn's remark disingenuous. "It's like saying you spent eight hours fishing and you end up with only one fish and say, 'We were only going to eat one anyway.' "

On the other hand, Bombardier's "Team Monorail" and Cascadia have already been competing for almost two years, after voters approved the route linking Ballard, Seattle Center, downtown and West Seattle.

Cascadia sent its proposal to the printer Monday — that's 200,000 pages including multiple copies — and will not be changing either its price or design, its executives say.
 
On the question of price, team executive Six Silva pulled out a copy of the voter-approved monorail initiative from 2002, which limits construction debt to $1.5 billion on an estimated $1.75 billion project.

"If you want to build it, take heed," he said.

In addition, monorail funds are tight because car-tab taxes are coming in at less than planned.

Design is a touchier subject.

In other cities, Hitachi's monorails are larger and more spacious than Bombardier's. Kim Pedersen, president of The Monorail Society, believes they offer a smoother ride, as well. But to gain those advantages, Hitachi monorails have needed bigger support columns.

Bombardier had proposed 4-foot-wide columns downtown (about the same size as existing monorail posts near Westlake Center) and to avoid blocking a lane of Second Avenue.

"One of the things we lose is they [Bombardier] were bringing a lot of innovations," said Don Wise, a downtown property manager with the critics' group OnTrack.

Cascadia has not disclosed its design, but executive Jeff Fielder said the team will propose overhead guideways that "fit into the urban fabric."

A few critics said the Seattle City Council, which already plans a financial review before construction starts, should also intervene in the design and technical issues. Longtime opponent Henry Aronson said the SMP does not enjoy "far-reaching trust" to steer the project.

Many backers and skeptics urge the agency to make the Cascadia bid public immediately, but the SMP says it will stick to its plan to conduct negotiations before releasing the details.

The monorail board's vice chairwoman, Kristina Hill, found some silver linings.

A construction contract might be awarded two weeks or a month earlier with only one team in the running, she explained. Plus, the risk of the agency being sued by the losing bidder is gone, she said.

Hill said the agency was intending to negotiate final design details after the bids anyway — and probably demand improvements — so the Aug. 16 bid is not the final word, she said.

One reason Bombardier left was because its team was unable to provide $550 million in performance bonds in time for the Aug. 16 bid deadline, after two partners withdrew this spring. Another obstacle was an SMP requirement to make all major construction partners liable if the project failed.

City Council President Jan Drago said even though one bidder is gone, the taxpayers were protected by the demanding process.

"The flip side is that Cascadia is strong, because it is able to meet this standard," Drago said.

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