Two years after breaking ground on the project, civil construction on the Lynnwood Link extension has reached the 50% completion mark, Sound Transit announced Tuesday. The rail extension is scheduled to open in 2024.

“The opening of Lynnwood Link will be a transformative event for the city of Lynnwood,” said Sound Transit Board Member and Lynnwood Mayor Nicola Smith. “Reaching the half-way mark for construction is a reminder that the start of service will be here in just a few short years.”

“Sound Transit Light Rail is halfway to Lynnwood and Snohomish County and that means more jobs and opportunity for the Second District and Northwest Washington,” said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who represents both Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood in Congress. “I will continue to support bold, long-term investments in local public transit like the bipartisan infrastructure bill that create well-paying jobs and keep Washingtonians and the economy on the move.”

On Monday, Sound Transit leadership provided a tour of the future Mountlake Terrace Station to Rep. Larsen, city officials and Community Transit CEO Ric Ilgenfritz.

“We are grateful for the support of Rep. Rick Larsen and Congress for their work on this infrastructure bill that will support the city’s efforts to connect people with transit, housing and jobs,” stated Mountlake Terrace Mayor Kyoko Matsumoto Wright, who attended the tour. “The project has really taken shape, and we are excited to see it through to fruition.”

With the recent passage of the federal infrastructure bill, $380 million in funding will support Sound Transit and its regional light rail projects. Sound Transit’s CEO Peter Rogoff on Monday emphasized the importance of federal funding with rising construction and labor costs along with competition with other national projects. The Lynnwood Link project remains fully funded and on schedule.

Slated for completion in 2024, the civil construction of the light rail project connecting the Northgate Station to Lynnwood through Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline is now at 50 percent.

Among the Lynnwood Link light rail construction progress made to date:

• All of the project’s 188 columns are complete.
• 530 of the 533 girders have been set, with the remaining girders to be set before the end of the year.
• Rail work has begun on multiple locations
• Construction of all ten 10 bridges has begun and is at 80% complete.

Construction is also well underway on three new garages being built for the extension. The garages at the Shoreline South/148th and Shoreline North/185th stations, will each have approximately 500 parking spaces.

The new garage at Lynnwood Transit Center will contain 1,670 parking stalls in a five-story structure. The parking garage is scheduled to open to the public in the spring of 2023, more than a year before light rail service to the Lynnwood City Center Station begins, in order to allow for the site work around the station to be completed.

Stacy & Witbeck/Kiewit/Hoffman JV and Skanska Constructors L300 JV are executing the civil construction on the extension. The $3.1 billion project budget includes up to $1.17 billion from a Full Funding Grant Agreement executed by the Federal Transit Administration. In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureauexecuted a $658 million low-interest loan supporting the project, including new LRVs and support facilities. At its initial signing in 2016, this loan saved regional taxpayers an estimated $200 million to $300 million through lower interest costs. In 2021, the US Department of Transportation refinanced this loan in light of lower interest rates, allowing taxpayers to save an additional $150 million to $250 million.

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 riders will have connections between South Snohomish County, the University of Washington, downtown Seattle, the Eastside, Sea-Tac Airport and Federal Way. The extension includes four new stations serving Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Shoreline and Seattle.