SEATTLE — Sound Transit has hired an executive from the agency in charge of Los Angeles International Airport to oversee its massive, ongoing light rail expansion, the website The Urbanist reports.
Terri Mestas will become the transit agency’s deputy CEO of Megaproject Delivery, acting on a 2022 advisory group recommendation to hire an expert to handle a 30-year plan for transit expansion currently tickted at almost $75 billion.
According to her biography at the Los Angeles World Airports website, Mestas has more than 30 years of experience overseeing major projects for NASA, military installations, anti-terrorism security, and the aviation industry. She has been in charge of the Los Angeles International Airport improvement program including construction of a new central rental car facility and a people mover to connect the airport’s terminal loop to the LA Metro rail system — although the people mover project has faced delays [see “Completion of LA airport people mover delayed to 2025,” Trains News Wire, March 29, 2024]
Mestas, set to join Sound Transit on April 29, will receive an annual salary of $600,000. She will arrive immediately after the April 27 opening of a portion of the East Link light rail line between Bellevue and Redmond, Wash. [see “Sound Transit to launch Bellevue-Redmond light rail …,” News Wire, Feb. 16, 2024]. That 6.5-mile, eight-station segment will initially operate in isolation because of construction issues with the connection portion between Bellevue and downtown Seattle, one of several significant delays on current light rail projects [see “Construction delays push back opening for four Sound Transit light rail projects,” News Wire, Aug. 22, 2022].
She came from Los Angeles, which was great when I lived there in the 60’s. It too is a mess now. She will really earn here money.
The entire state is a mess, which is a shame because geographically it is a beautiful state. When I originally moved here in 1967, it was clean, safe, and the roads were in great shape. I never liked the weather and never will. Now the roads are in terrible condition, the traffic is horrible.
May she have better luck in keeping the ducks organized in Seattle. The land where no whim goes unnoticed.
For the kind of money she will be earning, I’m sure she will be well compensated for herding the nut cases that run Washington State.
Charles, for 600k I certainly hope so.
“Herding the nutcases that run Washington State” is one tall order indeed (and I don’t think she’ll have much ability to change that reality). Getting Sound Transit’s broken and dysfunctional delivery of a major ($100+ Billion, including financing costs) delivery program back “on-track” is another herculean challenge which I’ll be interested to see if she can deliver here.
I might be mistaken, but I believe her $600,000 annual salary is greater than that of the Sound Transit CEO (about $370,000 or so per year). Good luck and hope she can make progress on fixing the mess that is Sound Transit in the central Puget Sound region.