Shortlist of Heavyweights Contend for Uncertain Austin Light Rail Project

In a couple of weeks, design-build proposals are due in Austin from a shortlist of formidable transportation heavyweights contending for the town’s deliberate $7.1-billion gentle rail mission. Submissions are due Oct. 24 from a Stacy & Witbeck and Sundt three way partnership, Kiewit and FCC.

The Austin Transit Partnership, the general public company fashioned to amongst different issues to finish the 10-mile, 15-station mission, faces quite a few obstacles.

Permitted by voters in 2020, the ATP plan nonetheless should full environmental approvals and safe federal funds. The sunshine rail mission is a part of a broader public transportation plan known as Venture Join.

In March 2024, a taxpayer group filed a lawsuit in state courtroom in Travis County to dam the sunshine rail mission because it was proposed. One of many arguments was that the Texas Tax Code prohibits using property-tax income to repay railroad development bonds. That lawsuit nonetheless is pending.

Quick-rising railroad development prices within the U.S. pressured ATP to reduce what had been a 27-mile route.

Though the mayor of Austin helps the mission, Gov. Greg Abbot (R) has opposed utilizing taxes to repay bonds.

ATP recognized the shortlisted corporations and groups in August. The successful agency will carry out design and development of the sunshine rail system, with development scheduled to start out in 2027.

The most important question-mark is whether or not federal funds might be allotted for it. The newest project funding plan anticipates $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion in federal grants, with one other $1 billion coming int he type of a TIFIA mortgage.

“Austin has gone to great lengths to tee up federal funds,” wrote Andrew Wheat, managing editor of the Austin Free Press, in August.

Supply: Austin Transit Partnership

However now, the mission is beneath sustained political and authorized assault, Wheat wrote. “At this time, federal funding for Venture Join appears like a a lot harder promote than when Democrat Pete Buttigieg was U.S. Transportation Secretary in 2024.” Wheat notes that beneath Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, tasks are being withheld till any local weather change or equity-related facets are deleted from the plan.

On the intense aspect, reported the Austin Free Press, two failed Republican celebration payments to defund the broader Venture Join didn’t cross the state legislature.