will receive funding from the fta. it is well to note that it is the highest rated project in the program that is waiting for full funding grant agreements. and one of the criteria, one of the most important criteria used in the project is the use of benefit criteria. how much will the public get from the project? right now, the project is at a critical junction. it is basically under final design. and at the same time, it is undergoing the early construction phase. they are overlapping. the three design packages, one of them is now complete. the design for the stations is 70% complete.

and the systems, 43%. that is our mission earlier. the project is undergoing early construction. there is relocation in the areas of yerba buena and most ghani station. that is done -- and mosconi station. that is done. i am sure you have noticed what is going on in union square and the locations in that area. supervisor campos: let me say something about that. how long is that were going to last? in terms of the public and what the public will see, i think it would be good for us to give members of the public a sense of what that is going to look like. >> right now, there are discussions for accelerating the work so they can complete that portion of the work of around union square just before the moratorium starts at thanksgiving. so if that happens, there will

be mostly out of that area by then. however, after that, construction starts on the tunnel portion of it. so there is going to be activity there for a while. the tunnels contract was awarded in june to a joint venture at $233 million, $13 million under the estimate. it is a major construction project for the -- for the project. each contract has three separate notices to proceed. the first one, which will be any day now in october, is for the procurement of the tunnel boring machines. the second one, which is

expected sometime in january, will be for the construction of the access pit for the machine. and it also includes the end walls for the stations, which was referring to earlier, activity in the union square area. the final notice to proceed will be up for the full funding agreement from the fta, net should be sometime in june of next year. in the area of real estate, two sides have to be acquired. the one in chinatown is already in escrow. the one in yerba buena-missoni station, they are finalizing negotiations. at the same time, three

easements need to be acquired and agreements have been drafted. there will be a decision in july. also in the area of realistic, eight out of 19 residential units have been relocated. mostly in the building in chinatown. three out of eight businesses that need to be relocated have also been relocated. here you have in front of you the original milestones. we have talked about some of them already. but as you see, to proceed for the union square station, it is expected in september, a year from now, surely followed by the chinatown station and the most ghani station. construction is not scheduled to be completed by november 2017,

and they will be in service in december 2018. here you have your funding plan, 1.57 $8 million. as i mentioned earlier, the economy situation, but that the federal level and the state level is costing a certain level of anxiety, i will say. however, the mta and staff have been working productively to look at ways in which any delay or shortfall could be addressed, working with mta, working together to advocate for any fallback position in in case they are needed. that concludes my presentation. i am if available for questions,

and the joint program manager for the subway is also here. supervisor campos: thank you very much. colleagues, any questions? let's open it up to public comment. if any member of the public would like to speak on this item, please come forward. >> supervisors, what i would like to see here is this, we learned a lot from what happened on third street. we learned a lot. and we still have time not to repeat the mistakes that were made on third street. now, we have people, political people, that are convincing some of the constituents that are going to deliver a project that in reality is not going to

happen in a concrete way. it is not going to happen. i was in washington, d.c., and i met some people, and they told me -- it is our politicians to do not trust, and they told me how they would work to adversely impact this project. i did not give them my frank opinion. and the reason why did not give them my friend the opinion is because -- my frank opinion is because when we're word deliberating on the third street light rail, we were told one thing and another thing has been happening. the third street light rail is not working for the people. scheduling, safety, and so on

and so forth. now, there are pros and cons, but you, representatives, should really find out from the engineering people what exactly is going to happen with this project. there are some astute san franciscans, just because they are speaking the truth, people are against them. there are some s due to -- astute city officials who know a lot about this. they have access to the blueprints. they have access to the engineering data. they speak the truth and people are against them. at a meeting like this, no real education can be done. but we have to put the san francisco county transportation authority -- [bell ring]

and other consultants on notice that mickey mouse type of operations, when the budget has increased by leaps and bounds, cannot be tolerated in san francisco in this dire economic time. and you have got to do that, because we have people who are hurting. thank you very much. supervisor campos: thank you. is there any of a member of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, any questions? ok, this is an informational item. >> item 7, introduction of new items. >> good morning. deputy for planning. just a quick item under new items to let you know that the van ness environmental document will be released imminently, on november 4. we intended to do a presentation

today. sorry, we were waiting for final comments. fortunately, we did get those comments. there very easy to deal with. we will be incorporating their comments in releasing the environmental document in early november for the public hearing scheduled for november 30, 6:00 p.m., and we have all this information on our website. we will certainly do a full update to the committee next month. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. colleagues, any questions? is there any member of the public who would like to speak on the introduction of new items? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item number 8, public comment. supervisor campos: this is for any member of the public to back to speak on any item that is not on the agenda but is in the jurisdiction of the committee.

seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item 9, adjournment. supervisor campos: meeting adjourned. thank you.