The C-Tran Board of Directors on Thursday approved three key contracts for a planned bus rapid transit system in Vancouver, clearing one of the final hurdles before the project begins construction this summer.
Each agreement secures a different component of the enhanced bus system as it moves through its last planning stages. The contracts will:
• Allow C-Tran to spend $11.2 million to purchase 10 60-foot-long articulated buses that will run the new system.
• Allow the project’s main consultant, Parsons Brinckerhoff, to continue developing the BRT project through construction to its planned opening next year.
• Award a total of $421,291 to three firms for “functional art” to be incorporated into the system.
The board approved each contract by a 7-1 vote. Only Clark County Councilor Jeanne Stewart voted against all three. County Councilor David Madore, one of the most vocal opponents of the project, was absent.
Stewart specifically spoke against the art expenditure, which will pay for station designs, special way-finding signs and other elements throughout the system.
“I see the spending of money that’s collected for public transit to be functional dollars, to be necessary dollars,” Stewart said, later adding: “I just object to spending the money on art.”
C-Tran’s BRT system, dubbed “The Vine,” would run between the Westfield Vancouver mall and downtown, primarily along the city’s Fourth Plain corridor. The system uses larger vehicles, raised boarding platforms and other features to move passengers more efficiently. C-Tran first floated the concept for Vancouver in 2011.
Most of the project’s $53 million price tag would be covered by grants, the largest of those a $38.7 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration’s Small Starts program. C-Tran expects that money — already appropriated into the federal budget, according to the agency — to begin arriving as soon as May.
The C-Tran board last year authorized spending $6.7 million in local funds on the project, to come out of C-Tran’s uncommitted capital reserves.
The BRT project has advanced despite opposition from some citizens and a few of C-Tran’s own board members. Last year, a group of people filed a lawsuit aiming to halt the project, but planning work has continued since then.
C-Tran Executive Director Jeff Hamm addressed the lawsuit before Thursday’s votes. He said C-Tran believes the complaint is “without merit.”
“There’s no reason to push the pause button on this project,” Hamm said.
C-Tran also gave board members an update on the status of the project and showed a video simulation of the system during the meeting. A few months away from construction, C-Tran is now in the process of acquiring some properties along the corridor, said planning and development director Scott Patterson.
“We’re not talking about acquiring large pieces of property or even full pieces of property,” Patterson said. “These are sliver acquisitions.”
Once operational, C-Tran has said the BRT line would cost less to operate than its current bus service along that corridor. The new system would replace the existing No. 4 and No. 44 routes on that stretch.
Hamm receives pay raise
Near the end of Thursday’s meeting, the C-Tran board voted to give Hamm a $14,000 raise, boosting his salary from $131,000 to $145,000 per year. The 7-0 vote followed a closed executive session on Hamm’s annual evaluation. (Stewart was not present for the vote.)
During the open discussion, Vancouver City Council members Anne McEnerny-Ogle and Jack Burkman noted that Hamm’s pay is below many of his peers at other transit agencies. Burkman said an annual salary of $164,000 would put it in a more typical range, but didn’t think a one-time increase to bring Hamm’s pay to that level would be appropriate.
Board members praised Hamm’s performance and expressed a desire to keep him at the helm. He was hired as C-Tran’s executive director in 2006.
