Civil construction is now underway on all of the parking and station structures on the Lynnwood Link extension, as the project continues to progress steadily toward a 2024 opening. Overall, civil construction on the extension is now about one-third complete.
“The start of work on the stations and garages for the Lynnwood Link extension underscores how rapidly the project is moving along,” said Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff. “With each passing day, the extension comes closer to reality, thanks to the dedication of the construction teams. This milestone is particularly remarkable given the extraordinary efforts those teams continually make to maintain a safe work environment during a pandemic.”
The Lynnwood Link extension will include four elevated stations and three new parking structures that will add about 1,500 additional parking spaces.
Located just northeast of I-5 at the NE 145th Street exit, the Shoreline South/148th Station will connect to new Sound Transit SR 522/NE 145th Bus Rapid Transit service. A parking garage with approximately 500 new spaces is part of the project.
Located on the east side of I-5, the Shoreline North/185th Station will serve Shoreline Stadium, the Shoreline Conference Center and the surrounding neighborhoods. Improved pedestrian pathways will connect the station to the west side of I-5. A parking garage with approximately 500 new spaces is part of the project.
Located east of Interstate-5 at the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center, the Mountlake Terrace Station straddles 236th Street Southwest, and is a short walk from the Mountlake Terrace Library, new city hall and future Gateway transit oriented development neighborhood. There will be no change to the number of parking spaces at the transit center.
The station at the Lynnwood Transit Center will serve one of the busiest transit centers in the region. A new garage will contain approximately 1,665 parking stalls in a five-story structure. Along with adjacent surface lots containing 226 stalls, the Lynnwood City Center Station will have nearly 1,900 parking stalls, approximately 500 more stalls than are on the current transit center site.
Construction of the parking garage at the Lynnwood Transit Center began last October. The parking garage is scheduled to open to the public in the spring of 2023, before light rail service to the Lynnwood City Center Station begins in 2024, in order to allow for the site work around the station to be completed, including the surface parking lots, landscaping, and other site amenities.
Stacy & Witbeck/Kiewit/Hoffman JV and Skanska Constructors L300 JV are executing the civil construction on the extension. Hoffman Construction is building the stations at Shoreline South/148th St and Shoreline North/185th St., while the garages at those locations are being built by Lydig Construction. Skanska JV is building the station at Mountlake Terrace and the station and garage at Lynnwood Transit Center.
By 2024 Lynnwood Link and other extensions currently under construction will more than double the length of the region’s light rail system. After Lynnwood opens in 2024, passengers from the Lynnwood Transit Center will enjoy 20-minute rides to the University of Washington, 27-minute rides to downtown Seattle and 60-minute rides to Sea-Tac Airport. Trains from Lynnwood will also serve the Eastside and reach downtown Bellevue in 51 minutes.
The $2.9 billion project budget includes up to $1.17 billion from a Full Funding Grant Agreement executed by the FTA. In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau executed a $658 million low-interest loan supporting the project. That loan was one of four loans captured in a Master Credit Agreement reached between Sound Transit and the USDOT at the end of 2016. The one-of-its-kind agreement should save regional taxpayers between $200 million and $300 million through lower interest costs.
Snohomish should not serve King Countyy. There are dozens of buses to fill that area. Everett to Lynnwood to Mountlake Terrace and on to Downtown Seattle. Skip 145th and 45th. We need Snohomish residents to actually ride the Link and travel quickly to get to work and SeaTac Airport.
Washingtonians are barely working (ie; 25% Capacity), and as we know, many companies have chosen to have many employees working from home now, the NEED has surely shifted, like everything else unforseen. Where exactly are these helpful trams going and moving whom exactly? To get to a Light rail ‘BUSES’ – hence ‘commuting’ and then when reach next ‘rail station’, I Still need yet another bus because light doesn’t even get close. So why the Heck Not – More Hybrid Buses and REAL Bus Routes for The Real Working Class?!!! Almost smells like a Good old-fashioned Washington Government Money Grab!!!
While I appreciate Marg White’s concern about SnoCo residents actually using light rail, they forget that many of us work in Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and will ride to the areas being served by the Link extensions, not to mention attending UW sporting events and activities in the neighboring Shoreline community. The more connected we are to King County, the more we will want to rely on Link for transportation. An hour to the airport sounds like an opportunity to read, chat with neighbors, and relax while someone else does the driving. So it takes 15 minutes longer than by car. At least my car is not getting beat up by the road grime and debris, and the cost of gas these days makes Link much less costly than driving a car.
Sound transit will go down in history as the biggest boondoggle in our nation. By the time they are done, most people or a good portion will be remote workers and those in the Trade line of work will need to drive. Sound transit has even admitted that less than 3% will use there line. But the worst is yet to come, sound transit is or will be in the red by the time they finish, and guess what they will tell you they need? More of our hard earned dollars! Are you ready for ST4 ? Ready for another car tab, sales tax and property tax increase.
I just took public transportation from Sea-Tac airport to Edmonds. The total cost was under four dollars for Link train and two buses. It took a long time, but not a totally unpleasant experience for an ancient Sociology major like myself. When you do this, you get a whole different picture of how numerous people in our society live and the huge gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” in our society. There is a large segment of people that totally depend on these systems for moving about and having at least some quality of life.
My other take away from this ride was how tragic Seattle has become. Pioneer Square area is a mass of boarded up buildings and tents full of people living on the sidewalks in the area. Woodland Park, a former must experience, place to see in Seattle, was full of tents and homeless with blocked off roads. I can’t believe the richest nation the world has ever known can’t do better than this – someway; somehow. The failure to address the needs for mental health treatment and drug rehab for all is destroying our country and no one is doing anything meaningful about it. If we are all in this thing together, I’d say a whole lot of folks haven’t gotten the memo.