This time next year we should have RUSBUS AND Creamery kickin! 
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I appreciate the whiskey additions.
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Talk about A+ journalism here…local CBS went above and beyond with their writeup on this new project 
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OMG I didn’t even see them, I just copy/pasted the first decent quality image of the “I want it now, Daddy” girl I found hahahahahaha
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"Construction has begun on a new bus station in Raleigh.
The new Union bus station is in the Warehouse District.
And the station will have more than just buses.
It will include mixed-use space with plans for shops, apartments, and 200 hotel rooms.
The new station is schedule to open in 2025."
Honestly, this is hilarious. Especially if you read it exactly as written, i.e. “FULL SENTENCE… pause … NEXT SENTENCE… pause … ANOTHER SENTENCE… pause …” 
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Until they decide prices are too expensive to build things. Let’s shelve it until the next recession starts
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It’s because they were supposed to start construction-related work by the end of this month (and they did yesterday!). This is where it’s helpful to pay less attention to press releases and mass media, and look at more industry-focused publications where they’re more careful about their verbiage.
For example, this Mass Transit Magazine article better explains what work needs to go into building RUSbus, and makes a distinction between construction and “groundbreaking”:
Also:
Hoffman and GoTriangle literally cannot do that. They’re contractually obligated to comply with specific timelines (e.g. starting “construction activities” by this month, and spending or returning all of their grant money by October 2025) as a part of winning the BUILD grant. Unless they want to throw away that hard-won money, they have to start building now.
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I mean I want this to move forward. I’m just saying, whatever federal grant money is coming is a drop in the bucket compared to building costs doubling or tripling. I hope everything keeps moving along; I just feel like we’re on the cusp of another mass cancellation of all the planned projects that have built up, like 2009.
Weird city. For a fast growing city it sure seems hard to get things out of a ground. BRT, Dix Park nothing but online surveys. The time frame from announcement to completion seems about 10 years.
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Honestly, 10 years is pretty quick for government projects in the US. I remember living in Austin when the talk on the town was light rail. That was 6 years ago yet the project hasn’t even broken ground yet and isn’t slated to be finished until the end of the decade. I mean look at California HSR, that project is nearly 10 years behind schedule and don’t even get me started on transit projects in NYC… second ave subway anyone?
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Analysis paralysis.
Study the living shit out of something until an eventual recession kills it altogether.
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I get your concern, but I think this is a different situation than past projects in our region. Remember that RUSbus is no longer just a plan; we won grant funding to build a big transit project for the first time EVER in the Triangle. Every past attempt -the first attempt at regional rail in the early 2000s, and our two attempts at light rail (one in Raleigh and another in Durham)- were canceled while they were ideas on fancy sheets of paper, cut off before we were guaranteed any money. There is money being spent today, resources being procured now. If they quit now, the developers would be left with a half-built building, and I’m having a very hard time imagining that to happen when all the pieces are now fully in motion?
If, for example, Hoffman & Associates screws over GoTriangle and runs their budget to the ground due to cost increases, maybe things could get ugly. But they figured out final project budgets during the pandemic; since they (should’ve?) taken the already-screwed-up transport costs and timelines into account during last year’s development agreement negotiations, I’m having a hard time that would come to bite us now.
And is there any reason to think we’re different from other American cities?
New York’s Penn Station redevelopment has arguably been stuck in political limbo since the 60s until its first phase opened last year,, Boston’s Green Line Extension was stuck in development for nearly 30 years, and the smorgasbords of light rail and BRT lines in Atlanta, LA, and Seattle all have similar legislative battle scars. All of those major projects have also struggled to gather years (or even decades) of due diligence, financial capital, and political support, just like in the Triangle.
You may just not be familiar with those stories because, I assume, you have no reason to care about the drama in Atlanta’s MARTA or Baltimore’s Purple Line to the same amount of detail as you do for GoTriangle. That’s okay; of course you’d care more about what happens around where you live. But that does not mean that, just because you don’t see dirt and drama elsewhere, that it doesn’t happen at all.
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I see your point. I just hope I do not get another survey asking me what shade of red the BRT stations should be painted.
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Just because every other city sucks at timelines doesn’t make me ok with Raleigh dragging their feet on everything. Stop studying it and just build it. This is meant for projects like Dix, Devereux, municipal buildings (not just one tower every 5 years), etc. I understand RUSbus is moving along at this point.
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There’s literally approved projects, not to mention DOT projects, that have been pushed back indefinitely because of rising materials and labor costs. Again, I’m excited and optimistic, but I always have that in the back of my mind for all projects. Please don’t get me wrong, I think this is a fantastic project and I am beyond happy that this is happening.
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The point I think he’s trying to make is that feet are not dragging and projects everywhere, public or private, take more time than people here have an understanding of, which he’s trying to rectify. I get the excitement though.
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It might be helpful for some of our industry experts to sketch out a timeline and its steps for a theoretical project (or RUSBUS) so we can gain a better grasp on what’s involved. People want visceral progress, but more often than not work is ongoing even if the site itself looks dead.
Example: 12-18 months - site control (legal, financial and initial site and infrastructure planning work, sometimes running concurrently, sometimes waiting on the other step to be completed)
18 months - 24 months - site and infrastructure planning completed
24-30 months - permitting, revisions
30-36 months - site prep, infrastructure work begins … etc. etc.
Any takers? I’m sure someone else can do better than my measly attempt
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Rode by today and there was a lot of dumpster activity. The clean out before the tear down!
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Can we see some pictures of works progress
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??? Please like demo
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