Sound Transit selects final route for Lynnwood Link through Shoreline
Friday, April 24, 2015
The Sound Transit Board selected the route, profile and stations for the Lynnwood Link Extension, which will run from Northgate to Lynnwood in Snohomish County through some of the worst traffic congestion in the state.
Trains will run along the Interstate 5 corridor from Northgate to the Lynnwood Transit Center with stations at Northeast 145th Street, Northeast 185th Street and the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center at 236th Street Southwest. A trip from Lynnwood to downtown Seattle will take 28 minutes.
The Board also directed staff to plan for future stations at Northeast 130th Street in Seattle and 220th Street Southwest in Mountlake Terrace. The light rail tracks in those areas will be built to accommodate construction of future boarding platforms in a way that won't impact service.
Cost estimates for the 8.5-mile project range from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion. A final budget will be established in 2017 with construction scheduled to begin in 2018. Trains will be running in 2023.
More information here.
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4 comments:
Why is Shoreline mostly surface? I thought it was going to be elevated!
Sound Transit most likely studied the demographics of private property involved that needs to be taken for the construction and found that it was cheaper to go that route than to elevate or tunnel. Once each and every one of those full or partial property acquisitions takes place, there will be new high-density construction, not just near the station areas, but all along the light rail line through Shoreline. Sure, it's not all zoned for it now, but exceptions will be made. Next time you drive on I-5, take a few quick glances to the East. Imagine the Sound barrier being gone, tall trees gone, and quite a few homes gone. Sure, ST tunneled from Capitol Hill to the U-District and U-District North, but the Shoreline demographics of people of modest means, affordable homes and not a lot of resources to fight back with surely made the at grade option the easy choice, because they know they can get away with it and ST will not add a station anywhere that is not willing to go through a massive high-density makeover. Sound Transit won't need to replace the sound barrier if they can facilitate miles of 6 story big box complexes (like you can already see built or planned in Shoreline), or better yet, even taller towers of condos.
They released this report weeks ago and they are just now getting around to telling the public? And the City of Shoreline just had to pass the 185th Station rezone? What is 185th Station most like? The future 130th Station, only with even less access, both Seattle and Sound Transit felt that both stations had little potential for TOD.
UPZONE MOTORCYCLE HILL!
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