Bellwater's bus rapid transit corridor is fully funded from end to end after Tuesday's council vote approving a $34 million supplemental appropriation for its two outer segments, the final piece of financing City Manager Marcus Whitfield promised council members when the original project was approved.
The appropriation, drawn from a mix of state infrastructure grants and general fund reserves, completes financing for the transit corridor’s West Bellwater and Foundry Row segments, which were left for a second funding measure when the council first approved the $86 million project on a 5-2 vote last year. Design work on the corridor’s central Downtown Core segment has been underway for months; Tuesday’s vote clears the way for construction crews to begin work on the outer segments by next spring.
“This is the appropriation we told this council we’d be back for,” City Manager Marcus Whitfield said. “I said last year the West Bellwater and Foundry Row segments would need a separate vote before winter, and here we are, on schedule.”
A contingency fund draws early attention
The $34 million includes a $2.1 million construction contingency reserve to cover potential cost overruns, a figure smaller as a share of the total than the contingency built into the original corridor vote. Council Member Aisha Muhammad, who represents Riverside Heights and has pushed for a transit feasibility study of her own district, asked whether unspent contingency funds from either phase could eventually be redirected toward preliminary data collection for a Riverside Heights study. Whitfield said his office was reviewing that possibility but cautioned it would depend on how much of the reserve goes unused once construction is complete.
I’m not going to promise money that might not exist yet. What I will say is that if this contingency comes in under budget, Riverside Heights has a legitimate claim on some of it, and I intend to bring that option back to the council rather than let it quietly roll into next year’s reserves.
Marcus Whitfield, Bellwater City Manager
Council Member Luis Bettencourt, whose Foundry Row district includes one of the two segments being funded, said the timeline mattered to biotech employers who have complained about limited transit access to the neighborhood’s growing lab cluster. “Companies expanding in Foundry Row keep telling me their biggest hiring obstacle isn’t lab space, it’s whether new employees can actually get there without a car,” Bettencourt said. “This funding means that complaint has an expiration date.”
Petrowski votes no again
Council Member Gary Petrowski cast the lone dissenting vote, as he did on the original corridor measure, arguing Cedar Hollow’s transit needs continue to be treated as a lower priority than Foundry Row’s. “I’m not opposed to finishing what the council already started,” Petrowski said. “I am opposed to voting yes on $34 million more for a corridor that skips my district while my constituents are still waiting to see whether their feasibility study turns into anything real.”
Whitfield noted that the Cedar Hollow feasibility study Petrowski secured earlier this year was funded separately through a state planning grant and remains on a track independent of Tuesday’s appropriation. “Those two things are moving on parallel tracks, not competing for the same dollars,” Whitfield said. “I understand why that distinction feels cold comfort to a council member whose district doesn’t have a bus line yet, but it’s the accurate one.”
Council President Walter Kowalczyk, who has described the original corridor as the first transit investment the city has finished funding rather than the last, said Tuesday’s vote reinforced that commitment. “We’re not just building one bus line and calling the conversation finished,” Kowalczyk said. “Cedar Hollow’s study is underway. Riverside Heights is asking for its own study. This appropriation just means the project we already promised actually gets built the way we promised it.”
Whitfield said construction crews would begin mobilizing on the West Bellwater segment first, given fewer utility relocations required along that stretch, with Foundry Row’s segment following within a few months. Full service across all three segments remains targeted for roughly two years from now, consistent with the timeline the council was given when it approved the original project.
Council Member Denise Okafor, whose West Bellwater district includes the community college’s second campus and stands to benefit most directly from the near-term construction, said she was relieved the appropriation passed before the college’s enrollment season peaks. “Students who take two buses to get to the West Bellwater campus have been asking about this project since it was first announced,” Okafor said. “I’d rather tell them construction is starting than tell them, again, that the funding is still pending.”
Whitfield’s office said it would publish a detailed construction schedule within 60 days, including planned lane closures along Mill Street in Foundry Row and the community college corridor in West Bellwater. He said the city would also stand up a temporary bus rerouting plan to minimize disruption for riders on existing routes during the roughly 18 months of construction. “We learned from the Downtown Core segment that residents want specifics, not just a general assurance that buses will keep running,” Whitfield said. “We intend to give them a real schedule this time, not just a promise.”