Aug. 2—Rail-transit projects across the U.S. take longer to build and cost nearly 50% more on average than in Europe and Canada, says a new study of 180 megaprojects, including some hits and misses by Sound Transit. The Seattle-based agency typically spends five years in the planning phase trying to please everybody, until leaders finally choose a route, the researchers learned. Los Angeles ... Read More

Jul. 1—PASCO, Wa. — Darigold will build a $500 million processing plant in Pasco under a new deal with the Port of Pasco. When done, the plant that will make specialized protein powder and butter, will create 200 on-site jobs and addition 1,000 support service jobs. More than half of the 400,000-square foot facility's products are expected to be exported, particularly to Pacific Rim countries, ... Read More

Jun. 29—Seattle will allow extra density for housing built on sites owned or controlled by religious institutions, while requiring the housing to charge below-market rents, according to legislation passed Monday by the City Council. The legislation will allow affordable projects on religious properties to rise one to six stories higher than the city's zoning rules would normally allow, ... Read More

Jun. 28—When Colleen Echohawk thinks about growth in Seattle, the mayoral candidate thinks about coffee and new neighbors, because that's what she got when more than 100 micro apartments were constructed in Idaho, hauled to her Bitter Lake neighborhood and assembled like Lego pieces down the street from her house, with a coffee shop below. She also thinks about evictions and splintered ... Read More

Jun. 2—Construction technology company Katerra is laying off 117 workers in Seattle, according to the state Employment Security Department, following reports Tuesday that the California-based venture is shutting down despite having raised about $2 billion from backers such as Japanese mega-investor SoftBank. A WARN notice filed with the employment department gives June 4 as the date for the ... Read More

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it could take more than a year to weigh an appeal by a developer seeking to build a copper and gold mine in a region that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. The corps' Pacific Ocean Division in Hawaii is handling the appeal by the Pebble Limited Partnership, which was denied approval of a key permit for the ... Read More

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year. In what is shaping up to be the worst ... Read More

May 16—Cargo traffic through Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, with scores of jets arriving daily from Asia. They brought with them computers, cell phones, pharmaceuticals and other products in high demand from homebound people in the Lower 48, airport officials said. Jets headed the other way hauled Canadian lobster, Washington state cherries and ... Read More