A newly uncovered federal report is once again raising questions about the BART extension into San Jose and just how long construction will take.
The original plan for the extension project was expected to be done by 2030 but the Mercury News has uncovered a report from the Federal Transit Administration that calls into question that timeline, suggesting it could instead take until June 2034.
Bernice Alaniz a spokesperson for BART Silicon Valley is pushing back on some parts of the report but said that local planners are taking others factors into account.
"The project team is working diligently to refine the project's scope and costs and to mitigate any and all potential risks," Alaniz told KCBS Radio.
The report projects the extension will take longer to complete and will cost more. Federal officials report that the project is $4.4 billion over the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority initial cost estimates and $2.2 million over the agency's recent calculations, Mercury News reported.
Local advocates have long warned that the project's unusual single boar tunneling approach could lead to cost overruns, and Bob Allen with Urban Habitat said this latest report raises those concerns once again.
"To go forward with the proposed single-bore technology and the cost, at a time when BART's own ridership protections are very very shaky it seems kind of hard to fathom," Allen said.
The single-bore method was chosen to minimize disruptions to businesses during day-to-day operations. VTA officials said it would be a faster and more cost-effective construction process than the typical dual-bore method, according to the publication.
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