first run on March 15, 1989, first with a diesel bus and then one of the Breda dual-mode trolleybuses operating in diesel mode, as the overhead trolley wires had not yet been installed. Wooden planks and steel plates covered slots in the concrete roadway where rails would be installed later. Local media were given a tour the next day. By January 1990, the tunnel stations were declared "nearly complete", with only minor work still left for contractors. Murals and other interactive art installations were placed in the nearly complete stations from December 1989 onward, as part of a $1.5 million arts program. Tunnel construction was finished on June 7, 1990, leaving Metro to test safety systems and train personnel for regular service to begin in September. The initial cost of the tunnel project was estimated in 1984 to be $334.6 million, but the final costs rose 56% over budget to a total of $468.7 million (equivalent to $ in dollars); the project's cost overruns were blamed on unanticipated soil conditions on the approach to Pine Street from 3rd Avenue, complaints and payouts to downtown businesses disrupted by tunnel construction, and the death of an electrician during construction. Excavated dirt from the project was used as fill for runway expansion at Paine Field in nearby Everett. South African granite scandal A minor scandal involving the bus tunnel project emerged in late 1988, over the discovery that granite to be used by Metro in the tunnel's stations had been sourced from South Africa. The Verde Fontaine granite was quarried in South Africa, which had been under Apartheid rule at the time, but was cut and finished in Italy, allowing for it to be approved despite the Metro Council's ongoing boycott of South African goods. The Verde Fontaine granite was selected for use as benches and interior walls in Westlake and Pioneer Square stations by architecture firm TRA; Metro was unaware that Verde Fontaine was only quarried in South Africa. The granite's origin was discovered by an activist from the Black Contractors Coalition in late 1988, who notified Metro and members of the Metro Council. Metro determined that replacing the of granite would cost $500,000 and delay both stations but would not delay the planned 1990 opening and would be covered by contingency funds in the project's budget. During a press conference on January 25, 1989, Metro Director Alan Gibbs confirmed that the