Design Your Own MARTA Expansion (Decatur, Clayton: bikes, tunnel, bank)

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by arjay57

What about cost overruns?

It seems like a lot of infrastructure projects wind up going vastly over budget and taking a whole lot longer than anticipated.

And does it make sense to expand when we already have a huge back log of deferred maintenance?

There are ways to build out without going over budget:

One is to not hire the lowest bidder (actually illegal in some places). Lowest bidder contractors are often not the lowest bid because they're somehow more efficient than everyone else, but rather they under represent costs, bringing in overruns later because there's no penalty to do so. They also 'save money' by using lower-cost (see: lower quality) materials, which need to be replaced sooner than higher quality materials would, and more often, leading to system repair costs where there don't necessarily need to be any.

Another is to dictate a time frame. Right now, Atlanta Beltline is putting out bids for the South-East trail extensions, with a requirement of the contracts being that the work be done in 18 months. After that, there are fines which would be imposed upon the company, digging into their profit of the contract. This may not insure, but at least gives decent incentive to finish the work on time without causing too much damage to the Beltline's budget in the mean time.

The last one i'm gonna mention is similar to the fines for going over time, in that you can hold the contractors accountable for staying within a certain percentage of the budget. For example, they can have up to a 10% overrun (maybe not that much, but it's an example) without penalty to pay for unforeseen problems, but after that, any overruns go into their profit.



As for paying for the maintenance backlog vs. paying for expansions, it's not really as either or as you put it. MARTA is already in the process of replacing ventilation systems, and signals in their tunnels, and have plans coming up for replacing a portion (all? I 'm not actually sure) of their rail fleet, while still being in budget.

That's because they have the capital funds from the current sales tax to pay for, while not insignificant, realitivly small projects. Paying for expansions would come almost exclusively from bonds that can be issued against an increase of sales tax revenues. That's why we haven't seen rail going further in the recent past, because the funding they receive now is tied up in mostly maintaining / upgrading what MARTA already has, with smaller-scale purchases all that are available.

Were MARTA to begin expanding further, it would be because they had the excess funds, on top of what they are already doing, to do so. Not instead of maintenance.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

I keep hearing this come up from time to time. Where is a report that lists just how much deferred maintenance MARTA supposedly has?

I haven't seen a list but that was the figure MARTA used when the TIA was being politicked a few years ago.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by arjay57

What about cost overruns?

It seems like a lot of infrastructure projects wind up going vastly over budget and taking a whole lot longer than anticipated.

And does it make sense to expand when we already have a huge back log of deferred maintenance?

The state is spending how much in the NW HOT lanes, while our existing bridges and roadways need maintenance?

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by cqholt

The state is spending how much in the NW HOT lanes, while our existing bridges and roadways need maintenance?

The two are not mutually exclusive (plus the former is being repaid by toll revenue, the latter just got a nearly $1 billion/year infusion with HB 170 money).

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Gulch

The two are not mutually exclusive (plus the former is being repaid by toll revenue, the latter just got a nearly $1 billion/year infusion with HB 170 money).

If you think the tolls collected will pay for the project, you are crazy. 85 HOT lanes have not paid for it's project and it was existing lanes.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cqholt

If you think the tolls collected will pay for the project, you are crazy. 85 HOT lanes have not paid for it's project and it was existing lanes.

If the tolls aren't enough they should up the ante. The 400 tolls paid for the road and much more.

[fourthwarden]

New Beltline MARTA Station Envisioned at Krog Street

The Georgia Tech College of Architecture is home to some pretty creative people who come up with some awesome ways to make Atlanta better (e.g. the Beltline). This spring Carlton W. Ingram, a masters student in the School of City and Regional Planning, examined the placement of an infill MARTA station at Hulsey Yard. The station would be located between the King Memorial and Inman Park/Reynoldstown stations, adjacent to the Beltline near Krog Street and would serve as a major connection point for the existing rail system and the obscenely popular trail. Well wouldn't that be nice ...

Hardly joking around, Ingram brings serious arguments for the development, traces MARTA's history of studies for the site and examines precedents in other cities. With details about drawing ridership, cost and even how the station could fit into the surrounding neighborhood with minimal impact, the 25-page report offers some insight into how the process could unfold.

While it may be a long shot for actual implementation, it'd be nice to see the folks over at MARTA give the report a once-over and aim for incorporating the idea as a future goal and maybe building on previous studies. Since the Beltline came from Ryan Gravel's master's thesis, it would be only fitting to build off that legacy, right? Considering the Beltline's timeline, however, it could be 2100 before the MARTA stop gets built.

[MattCW]

Great, make the EW line even slower. Can't just go the extra half mile to King Memorial, gotta have something right there! At least they should fix the Decatur slow-zone (THAT WAS EXPANDED EARLIER THIS YEAR!) before looking at this.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Great, make the EW line even slower. Can't just go the extra half mile to King Memorial, gotta have something right there! At least they should fix the Decatur slow-zone (THAT WAS EXPANDED EARLIER THIS YEAR!) before looking at this.

Well, it was a student's paper, not anything from MARTA. It wouldn't be too crazy, considering Krog / Beltline is just about the same distance from King / Inman Park as any of the midtown stations. It would also allow the Beltline a more obvious choice of transit routing.

[primaltech]

As I was saying in the Curbed comments, this is so needed, and other infills are needed as well.

Like everyone has mentioned, if the concern is speed, then just have an express train in addition to the regular one. Don't not build stops, especially ones that add such potential connectivity and return on investment.