From the CEO: Lynnwood Link and the government shut-down

Joni Earl, CEO
Sound Transit

By Joni Earl, CEO Sound Transit

 

Impacts of federal government shutdown

Because many Sound Transit projects rely to some degree on federal funding, we’re keeping an eye on the other Washington. While the federal government shutdown has caused no immediate impacts to Sound Transit, if prolonged it could pose real problems. The Federal Transit Administration, for example, has oversight of the environmental processes required for light rail extensions and its regional office is currently closed. Substantial delay of environmental processes would put projects behind schedule and perhaps cause service to open later than planned. We’ll continue to monitor the situation.

Lynnwood Link Draft EIS public comments

A summer outreach effort resulted in more than 640 sets of public comments about route and station alternatives under consideration for Lynnwood Link, the 8.5-mile extension of light rail service between Northgate and Lynnwood. The most common concerns throughout the corridor revolved around potential visual, noise, property and property value impacts. These public comments, together with those of local jurisdictions and analysis of estimated costs, benefits and risks, are being considered by the Sound Transit Board. In November the Board intends to identify a preferred alternative for further study in the Final Environmental Impact Statement; this will allow focused engineering and risk assessment of the alignment and stations the Board identifies.

Final project definition is expected in 2015, with service opening in 2023. You can find more detailed information online.