WEST SEATTLE LIGHT RAIL: New information expected next week

| Sound Transit | Transportation | West Seattle news

It’s been 3 1/2 months since Sound Transit‘s West Seattle-to-Ballard light-rail planning entered a new phase, with the ST Board finalizing what the Draft Environmental Impact Statement should include. The board also told ST staff to look at some other options – and those assessments are about to go public, ST has announced, specifically these assessments of these possibilities:

*Elevating the new and existing light rail lines in SODO
*Refinement of the Pigeon Ridge Tunnel route with a refined Duwamish crossing, tunnel through Pigeon Point and further south Delridge station
*Route along Yancy/Andover corridor, with a Delridge station serving Youngstown
*Tunnel route with tunnel station at 20th Ave NW in Ballard

That description is from an ST message to former Stakeholder Advisory Group members, which adds:

We plan to have evaluation results for these initial assessment alternatives in mid-September and anticipate sharing those results with the Sound Transit Board at the Sept. 12th System Expansion Committee meeting and the public at that time. We are targeting October for Sound Transit Board review and potential action.

The committee meets 1:30-4 pm next Thursday at the ST boardroom downtown (401 S. Jackson) – here’s the agenda (PDF).

Mary September 6, 2019 (5:00 pm)

I just got a call from today from a Right of Way Agent from Sound Transit wanting to access noise from my house. Does anyone know if this has anything to do with them wanting to take my property?

WSB September 9, 2019 (10:42 am)

Mary – Sound Transit explains to me that “The noise testing is a part of our technical work as we continue to evaluate the West Seattle/Ballard project. We are doing noise testing, vibration testing, potholing looking at underground utilities, etc. We won’t begin any property acquisitions until the Board picks a Preferred alignment and station locations. That decision will not come until 2022.”

Nick September 9, 2019 (4:36 pm)

Mary- Typically this is done to obtain baseline data that can be used during design for noise mitigation and monitoring during construction. They want to see how much noise there is around your neighborhood under normal circumstances.