TACOMA, Wash. — Salamone’s Pizza has been serving New York Style pizza in Tacoma since 2018.
When Steven Salamone first opened up the shop on North Tacoma Avenue, his goal was simple.
“I don’t do much but make the very best pizza I can,” Salamone said.
Salamone said running the shop has been great, except for one thing: construction for Tacoma’s light rail extension project.
When the light rail was first announced, Salamone said he was excited about the new addition to the neighborhood.
Then, the construction started.
“The light rail nearly killed my business in 2019 when they started,” Salamone said. “When they closed the roads, they took all the parking, they barricaded essentially my entire shop with their heavy construction vehicles … my sales dipped, every time they closed the roads, my sales went right down.”
Now, Sound Transit has announced another delay to the light rail project. The public transit agency says areas of stray electrical current were found under a segment of the newly installed track. Fixing this may push the expected completion date of somewhere in the first quarter of 2023 even further.
But after three years of deadline extensions and delays, Salamone said enough is enough, and business owners who have endured the construction need to be compensated to offset their financial losses.
“They’re going to be back here, closing all the roads, taking all the parking with their vehicles, so yeah, it’s unconscionable what they’ve done,” Salamone said. “If Sound Transit wants to operate like that, poorly, then it should cost them, not us.”
According to Sound Transit, there’s no telling how long this delay will push back the project. In the meantime, Pierce Transit has announced that service will resume at the Commerce Street Transit Center starting tomorrow. Free shuttle buses will also continue to serve all T Line stations between the Tacoma Dome and Theater District.
Sound Transit sent KING 5 a statement: “While we assist businesses impacted by construction in many ways, state law prohibits us from compensating them financially for any disruption.”