Shoreline and Seattle City Light discussing costs for undergrounding utilities

Published 7:51 am Monday, February 25, 2008

Shoreline officials say they have reduced the cost of the Aurora Corridor Project from $30 million to $19.6 million, but roughly a third of that savings is still up in the air.

The city is in negotiations with Seattle City Light to assume the cost of undergrounding utilities, said project manager Kirk McKinley.

“Before, we were assuming the city was paying for all the undergrounding, but as we started to think about it, the city is not paying for undergrounding water, cable, the Internet or sanitary sewer, why should Seattle City Light get a free ride?” McKinley said.

“So while we are still in negotiations with Seattle City Light, we did back that out of the budget.”

McKinley estimates the cost of undergrounding would represent about $3 million to $4 million in savings. The rest of the projected $11 million in savings is coming from reducing the right of way by a foot on each side, narrowing the sidewalk in several places and reducing how far the city plans to extend curbs, gutters and sidewalks along the side streets.

Henry Brown, government account executive with Seattle City Light, said, “We have committed to the city of Shoreline that we are partners and we will look at this together, but we are still in negotiation and haven’t submitted a cost estimate yet.”

Opposition to the Aurora Corridor project, led by the Shoreline Merchants Association, argues that it’s not a real savings, and that even if Seattle City Light takes on the cost of undergrounding, that cost will be passed on to rate payers in Shoreline.

McKinley said the city is researching its franchise agreement with Seattle City Light to determine if the cost would be passed on to all rate payers in the system, or just to Shoreline rate payers.

Brown said the cost and the policy on how undergrounding will be paid for in Shoreline has yet to be determined.

Brown said when Seattle City Light has paid for undergrounding for other jurisdictions like Burien, the cost was passed on to the rate payers in that jurisdiction, not system wide. Exceptions can be made, he added.

“If it is related to transportation or traffic, or it benefits our situation, we could pass it on to all rate payers,” Brown said.

Dan Mann, a Shoreline Merchants Association spokesman, said at a recent SMA meeting that the reduction in the cost shows that the city is misleading its citizens by first telling them the project will cost $30 million, then changing the cost suddenly to $19.6 million.

“What the city is not telling you is that businesses will have to pay $15,000 for each hook up (to the underground utilities)” added Rick Stephens, another SMA spokesman.

McKinley said while it is true businesses will have to pay anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 to hook up to the underground utilities, the city is planning to offer $5,000 to each business to help mitigate the impact.

SMA officials say that’s not enough.

McKinley said the city is not trying to hide the cost of the project from the public. The city started the project over-estimating the cost, as a conservative approach, and that its the city’s job to find ways to save money on the project.

“When you first start a project, you don’t really have any idea how much it costs. As you get further along in the process and learn more about the cost and design impacts, you can start changing the estimate and reducing the amount you have in contingency,” he said.