Five months after voters passed Sound Transit 3 – a $54 billion package including a promise of light rail to West Seattle by 2030 – agency leaders declared today that they are “pushing the ‘go’ button” on that and other parts of the system expansion. We went downtown this afternoon for a media briefing preceding the Sound Transit board‘s afternoon meeting at which the draft System Expansion Implementation Plan was officially unveiled.
The speakers in our video of the 21-minute briefing were, in order, ST board chair Dave Somers (Snohomish County Executive), CEO Peter Rogoff, and board vice chairs Marilyn Strickland (Tacoma Mayor) and John Marchione (Redmond Mayor).
Though much of what they said involved generalities about the overall plan, we did get some specifics, particularly as they discussed the importance of “collaboration” with the jurisdictions in which they’ll be building. So, we asked, what kind of collaboration is required with/in the city of Seattle? Rogoff offered one example: A single environmental review for West Seattle to Ballard – even though the two segments will not be completed together; Ballard has a five-years-longer timetable (and will require a new tunnel through downtown). Toward that end, ST has already issued a Request For Qualifications for a key role in the West Seattle to Ballard planning – described in the news release accompanying the briefing as “a consultant (who) later this year will support kicking off planning for light rail between West Seattle, Downtown Seattle, and Ballard.” That solicitation is summarized here; bids are due May 17th.
Overall, ST3 will quintuple the size of the transit network, and Rogoff said they are figuring out everything they can do to facilitate and accelerate it – such as co-locating project teams who might otherwise have been spread out between multiple buildings.
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