Seattle City Wire

The Seattle Metro Chamber is a longtime supporter of our regional light rail system, and we are enthusiastic about light rail in more Seattle neighborhoods - and beyond - as part of Sound Transit 3. At the same time, we need Sound Transit to pay careful attention to how it is built. Our city can’t afford to invest in downtown’s recovery only to have it undone by 10+ years of construction.

We spoke up recently with nine other community groups about the importance of Sound Transit avoiding and minimizing construction impacts and, when not possible, investing resources and time to implement robust mitigation plans.

At its meeting last week, the Sound Transit Board discussed proposed light rail stations from the Chinatown-International District through downtown to Ballard, based on the results of additional technical studies and public input. 

Here is what the board is considering:

• New stations at Pioneer Square and south of the Chinatown-International District. These two stations would replace earlier proposals for a station next to the existing Chinatown-International District station and the Midtown station on Fifth Avenue and Marion Street.
• A station on Westlake Avenue, instead of one on Terry Avenue as community stakeholders have advocated to avoid a four-year closure of Westlake Avenue.
• A station serving Seattle Center west of the campus on Republican Street to avoid major disruptions to the arts and cultural organizations.
• Design changes to the Smith Cove and Interbay stations to avoid constructability issues and impacts to the Seattle Storm practice facility.
• A tunnel to Ballard with a station at 15th Avenue and Market Street near the neighborhood’s highest density areas.

As presented to the board, this proposal is within the agency’s realigned financial plan and can be delivered by 2038, one year later than originally planned, due to the added analysis of station alternatives in response to public comments.

If you have preferences about a particular station location or suggestions for how construction impacts should be mitigated, send your comments to the System Expansion Committee before the March 9 meeting. At that meeting, they will discuss a recommendation for consideration by the full Board. Details on how to share your comments with the committee can be found here.

Original source can be found here.