Seattle Monorail Suffers Setback

Kiewit Construction is leaving the project, believing the project is a little risky.

But monorail proponents are shrugging off the bad news, insisting it's still on track.

"There's nothing that's happened so far," says Joel Horn with the Seattle Monorail Project. "There's nothing that happened that says we are not going to be able to build the monorail we all want, that we are all going to be proud of."

The monorail of the future is the 21st century version of a Seattle icon. It will travel from North Ballard to downtown Seattle, and then to West Seattle.

At a meeting Tuesday morning, Monorail officials assured the board and you the people it will be built on budget.

The reason some companies see the Seattle project as the future of American transportation:

"They have told us on many occasions that if they can get in the door here and show how this project will work, how the monorail technology can work as urban transportation solution, they see that as a big opportunity for them across the country," said Ann Levinson with the Seattle Monorail Project.

That belief has monorail officials holding firm to a price cap. That may have been why Kiewit dropped out.

"It's not a deal breaker, or a crisis or anything like that," said Monorail Board Member Cleve Stockmeyer. "It just shows we are the tough project in town."

Monorail proponents say hold on Seattle, don't panic. Ground will be broken this fall and the monorail will become a reality.

Meanwhile, critics of the monorail are planning to launch an initiative to stop the project. But the so-called "Popular Monorail" say the voters won't abandon it now