Midst the unseasonably warm temperatures Thursday, about 175 people gathered at the Durham train station at West Pettigrew Street to extol the virtues of the light rail plan. Many speakers, some Duke employees, focused on Duke as the impediment to the project moving forward.
Let’s look at the reasons the Durham Orange Light Rail project is in trouble. A big impediment is the number of unresolved engineering challenges. One challenge resides at Duke University because so much of the route slices through wooded areas of Duke University crossing the campus near busy student activity centers and at the Duke Hospital Emergency Entrance. Do Duke students and patients even know what’s on the drawing boards – years of construction on their campus?
These engineering challenges are not new. GoTriangle has had years to resolve problems along the route. Two high level Board members resigned last year over unresolved problems caused by the project in Downtown Durham. The rail made an at-grade crossingsthat would have closed Blackwell Street near DPAC. The solution? A GoTriangle meeting of 50 people in December quickly produced a plan to build a tunnel underneath downtown Durham. It’s too soon to know the costs. Herald article.
The rally speakers did not talk about the downtown tunnel nor the escalating costs of the rail project. In a January 10 meeting that was closed to the public, elected officials learned that up to 500 million must be raised and financed, adding still more costs to the recent price tag of 3.3 billion dollars.
In a few weeks, GoTriangle will reveal how they will pay for the new debt in a new financial plan. It is likely that local governments will be asked to guarantee the new debt, encumbering schools and social service budgets. Now that is something for our County Commissioners and school officials to be concerned about!
Duke has done more to spur the remarkable resurgence of Durham as an interesting and happening city than any other area institution. See 2011 article. GoTriangle needs to look at its own incompetence if the plans are not ready to submit to the FTA.