$100 million down, $40 million to go for Lander Street project; another ‘open house’ ahead


The Lander Street Bridge (ex-overpass) in SODO – seen as a key part of mobility between there and here – is now $40 million away from full funding.

That’s what the city says in this afternoon’s announcement that the feds have just finalized a grant covering about a third of the price tag of the project that’s been revived after almost a decade on the shelf. Read on for the official news release, plus news of another “open house” about the project:

Mayor Ed Murray, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, and U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell today applauded the approval of $45 million in federal grant funds for the City’s South Lander Street Bridge Project. After a 60-day congressional review period, the US Department of Transportation finalized its FASTLANE Grant Program’s recommendations with the Lander Street Project receiving the largest grant award in Washington state.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) project seeks to construct a long sought after bridge on South Lander Street over the railroad tracks between First and Fourth Avenues South in Seattle’s SODO district to improve traffic operations, freight mobility, and safety. The project especially supports mobility for the local manufacturing sector, promoting middle class, family-wage jobs that support economic vitality in the Puget Sound region.

“The South Lander Street Bridge project is critical for creating a safer, more mobile SODO neighborhood for cars, pedestrians, and bicycles in this key freight corridor,” said Mayor Murray. “This project has long been identified as a high priority, with Seattle voters approving $20 million in dedicated funding through the Move Seattle levy in 2015. Thank you to Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell for their leadership at the federal level and the U.S. Department of Transportation for contributing to this important infrastructure project that will promote safer mobility and protect family-wage jobs in the industrial heart of Seattle.”

“This investment will produce real results—not only for the city of Seattle, but for our entire state’s economy,” said U.S. Senator Patty Murray. “I’m proud to see the federal government being a good partner to our state and our communities, and I will continue to push for investments that help our transportation systems become safer, more efficient, and able to meet the demands of our 21st century economy.”

“Washington state’s economy and regional jobs depend on being able to move freight quickly and efficiently,” said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell. “At Lander Street alone, Washington state loses $9.5 million a day in economic activity because of train, truck, and urban traffic congestion. By addressing this bottleneck, we will speed up freight movement to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma, fuel our export economy and generate significant job growth.”

South Lander Street is an essential east-west corridor serving Port of Seattle freight, commuters, pedestrians, and bicyclists, as well as King County Metro buses. Every day, South Lander Street is closed for more than 4.5 hours due to rail traffic, impacting approximately 13,000 vehicles that use the street daily. More than 16 percent of those are buses, trucks serving the Port of Seattle or vehicles supporting local manufacturing.

The new bridge will provide safe connections for 1,400 pedestrians daily, primarily traversing between the SODO light rail station and area employers. This project will remove all at-grade access to the tracks at that location, completely eliminating the safety risk. In the past five years, three fatalities have occurred between trains and pedestrians there and an average of 485 track violations occur daily as cars, pedestrians and bicycles cross the tracks when the safety gates are deployed.

The new Federal FASTLANE Grant Program was created by Senator Cantwell as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act and passed by Congress in late 2015 to fund critical freight and highway projects across the country.

The $45 million grant award, combined with $20 million from the City’s Move Seattle Levy and contributions from other grants and funding partners, brings the City within $40 million of full funding for the $140 million Lander Street project. The new four-lane bridge will provide a reliable east-west connection for all modes of traffic, improving safety and mobility in the area. The project will break ground in early 2018, pending receipt of remaining funding.

You can find out more at the next “open house” for the project, 4 – 6:30 pm Thursday, September 22nd, same place the first one was held three months ago, at Metropolist in SODO, 2931 1st Avenue S.

9 Replies to "$100 million down, $40 million to go for Lander Street project; another 'open house' ahead"

  • sw September 7, 2016 (2:20 pm)

    Wasn’t there some guy who wanted to donate about $40 million to the city to mitigate traffic woes?  Oh, that’s right – the City Council voted down the Occidental street vacation.  Much better to have that empty street.

    • chemist September 7, 2016 (3:37 pm)

      Technically, the MOU negotiated back in 2012 established a $40 M sodo transportation fund that was to be filled from already legislated taxes collected during keyarena use (admissions, primarily)/construction activities.  Then the council mandated the $18-20 M they’d be selling the city street for would also go into that fund.  “Donation” vs “directing tax money”.

       SODO Transportation Infrastructure Fund (considering only deposits of Arena Tax Revenues and Key Arena Taxes) to a
      total of $40 million,

      • East Coast Cynic September 7, 2016 (9:33 pm)

        If some of the council people had some good sense (about 5 of them), they could negotiate most of or the remainder of the needed funds for the overpass from Chris Hansen—in exchange for a street vacation….for a lightly used street.  Amazon, the Mariners and other corporations around here get street vacations w/ no difficulty,  but some of the council people have some ideological hangup about public/private partnerships, even upon vetting and study by the city, the benefits are a financial plus for the city.

  • redblack September 7, 2016 (4:43 pm)

    occidental is, by no means, an “empty street.” not only does it handle truck deliveries for first ave storefronts, it also provides egress from (and access to) the increasingly stupid congestion on atlantic street.

  • sleepernw September 7, 2016 (11:06 pm)

     You would think the Port of Seattle who would benefit most would provide the remaining amount. Their initial contribution of 5 million was pretty pathetic

  • Denise September 7, 2016 (11:35 pm)

    I hope this construction starts before the tunnel is done. That way every minute of every day can be a commute  nightmare. Oh wait it already is!

  • 22blades September 8, 2016 (3:47 am)

    I certainly have a hang-up about selling off our infrastructure for private use and short term cash. Besides, anybody that goes downtown at 7:30 can tell you, you’ll be hard pressed to find an “empty street”. It took 147 years to get the infrastructure we have. I’m not for selling it so Starbuck employees can eat from a taco truck safely on their lunch hour. Giving away our right of way seems like poor utilization of what we have, versus abandonment.

  • Sue September 8, 2016 (12:10 pm)

    FYI, the postcard I received about this said that there is a “presentation” at 5:15.

  • Don Brubeck September 8, 2016 (8:08 pm)

    “Contributions” from Port of Seattle are from taxes we pay.  

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