King County and Sound Transit land $14.4 million in federal grants for buses, facilities

Metro North Base lid to be redone.
Photo from Wikipedia

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) today, October 17, 2011, awarded King County $6 million in grants that will enable Metro to improve facilities and enhance its ability to monitor and track the efficiency of its transit assets.

Sound Transit received $8.4 million in separate FTA grants that will help replace aging buses with new vehicles featuring hybrid-diesel technology, and will help make the new Link light rail station at South 200th Street in SeaTac more accessible for bus transfers, bicyclists and pedestrians when it opens in 2016.

The grants will create jobs and make ST Express fleet greener.

A neighborhood park sits atop the lid of the Metro North Base.
Photo by Haddad Drugan

The $6 million FTA grant will fund replacement of the roof at Metro’s north transit base, which has reached the end of its useful life. When completed, this green roof will continue to support a neighborhood playground on top, which has been a popular play area for a number of years.

Neighbors helped create mosaic pavers.
Photo by Haddad Drugan

The park was designed by Laura Haddad. In 1995, she was awarded a $10,000 grant for art in the park but decided that the space was so grim and drab that the money would be better spent redesigning the area for public use.

The grant will replace the lid and renew the park.
Photo by Haddad Drugan

From the Haddad Drugan website:

"Existing materials including concrete pavers, picnic tables, plants, and a sandbox were moved and transformed to create a series of smaller-scaled, friendly, and playful spaces. Colorful paint and perennials were added, and a new entry portal replaced the chain link fence. Laura worked with park neighbors to cast and inlay mosaic-concrete pavers that were incorporated into the park."