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SALT LAKE CITY — Tensions rose between Mayor Jackie Biskupski and the City Council again Tuesday when the mayor disclosed that she and UTA officials may have found a more affordable solution for the TRAX extension to the new airport terminal currently under construction.
When council members asked her for details about the new design — such as whether it would be "elevated" to meet the new terminal as previously planned — Biskupski wouldn't elaborate, saying she had agreed to keep the new design "confidential" at the request of Utah Transit Authority CEO Jerry Benson.
"Are you aware that this body is entitled to the same confidential information as the executive branch?" asked Councilman Derek Kitchen.
"I do have some heartburn with this," said Councilman Charlie Luke. "Frankly, I don't find it acceptable to have to wait until UTA's unelected board signs off."
"Yes or no? Is it going to be elevated to the second level or not?" asked Councilman James Rogers.
Biskupski wouldn't answer, saying she'd agreed to keep it private until the UTA board of trustees could be looped in.
"We have been asked to keep this confidential," she said.
But Benson said that wasn't the case.
"I'm afraid I've got a little misunderstanding with the mayor," he said in a phone interview after the council meeting.
Previously, an elevated TRAX line was planned to meet a skybridge to the redeveloped Salt Lake City International Airport's new terminal, slated to be completed in 2020. But the project would cost more than $68 million — a price tag UTA officials have said is more than they could afford, even though the agency had entered into an interlocal agreement in 2008 to pay for the city's designs.
Benson previously said the city wouldn't allow UTA to contemplate a ground-level extension of the TRAX line, but that's changed.
"Under the previous airport leadership that was never allowed to be considered, but now there's new leadership (interim director Russell Pack) and with the mayor's guidance they have gone back to the drawing board," Benson said. "We're happy to hear that the airport was willing to put that on the table."
Benson said the design work is still underway, but the ground-level TRAX line would lead up to the west side of the new terminal instead of the front of the south side.
Why did Biskupski believe she couldn't talk about the design? Benson said she must have misunderstood when he had asked her earlier this month when the potential redesign was discussed that she not present it as a finalized and budgeted plan, but he didn't have "any problem at all sharing this concept."
"All I had asked that she not present this as approved by UTA," Benson said, noting that he still needs to present the concept to the UTA board of trustees in September.
Benson said early estimates indicate the new plan would be much easier to fund within UTA's budget — $15 million rather than the $68 million previously projected for the elevated line.
"We were very encouraged by this option being put on the table, and we're going to go to work to see if it's viable," he said.
Biskupski, in response to council members' frustrations about lack of information, said "we should all be excited" about the "potential path forward" and not be "angry or frustrated."
Later Tuesday, after the council meeting, Biskupski told reporters that she had received a phone call from Benson giving permission to speak about the plan and that her staff will be forwarding its details to the City Council Wednesday morning.
