Agreement on Downtown Tunneling for Seattle Region’s East Link Light Rail

[marmar]

from the Transport Politic blog:





Agreement on Downtown Tunneling for Seattle Region’s East Link Light Rail

Yonah Freemark
October 30th, 2011


At a cost of $2.5 billion, Seattle’s planned East Link light rail extension project is one of the nation’s largest and most expensive transit expansion programs, which makes it remarkable in itself. A new connection across Lake Washington and into the cities of Bellevue and Redmond will significantly decrease transit times for intercity trips in the region and attract about 50,000 riders a day once it is completed in 2023.

The real achievement of the project, though, is its response to local demands in the form of the construction of a tunnel through Downtown Bellevue, agreed upon by the transit agency Sound Transit last week.

The passage in 2008 by Seattle region voters of the Sound Transit 2 package of bond releases guaranteed that local funding would be available to construct new lines extending the original Seattle light rail line from downtown to Sea-Tac Airport, which opened in 2009. East Link is the largest funded segment, though additional lines running north and south are also planned.

Once it became clear that light rail would be running through Bellevue, the city council made apparent its interest in tunneling the section of the line through the business district. From a point of regional equity, that might have made sense (since Seattle had its own downtown tunnel), but according to initial studies it would cost up to $1 billion more than a surface-level line. With broad streets and thus plenty of potential right-of-way, there would be little reason to spend so much. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2011/10/30/agreement-on-downtown-tunneling-for-seattle-regions-east-link-light-rail/

[HuckleB]

1. Yeah! But 12 years!? WOW!

:wow: