DELAYED AGAIN: RapidRide H Line now pushed back to March 2023

(Image from kingcounty.gov)

The RapidRide H Line launch is being pushed back again. Metro announced today that instead of launching this fall, the Route 120 conversion won’t happen until March 2023: “Unforeseen construction and materials delays from the regional concrete strike that began in early December 2021 have added several months to the original timeline of the RapidRide H Line project.” The announcement adds, “Under the revised implementation schedule, Metro plans to add more daily bus trips to coincide with the launch of the RapidRide service in March 2023, which will then improve frequent service to provide a bus trip in both directions every seven minutes during peak commute times.” Metro says that “approximately 40% of the overall construction work” has been completed so far. The (corrected) Delridge repaving project that SDOT handled was in support of the expected launch. This is the fourth time the launch has been pushed back – the conversion of Route 120 was originally projected for 2019, then that was pushed to 2020, then to 2021, and then a year and a half ago, changed to 2022.

WSCurmudgeon April 19, 2022 (5:32 pm)

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time …

Color me not surprised April 19, 2022 (6:08 pm)

Delays on METRO? Why I am not surprised and still waiting at the bus stop for the bus that was scheduled to arrive 20 minutes ago?

StupidinSeattle April 19, 2022 (7:05 pm)

They need more concrete? Delridge was completely rebuilt over the past two years so that reason makes no sense at all.

WSB April 19, 2022 (7:16 pm)

Delridge is only part of the route. Also, what’s under construction now are features such as the stations.
- sam-c April 19, 2022 (7:54 pm)
  
  Yes, the concrete delay has created quite a mess for Ambaum. Can’t wait for that to wrap up.
1994 April 19, 2022 (7:41 pm)

Check out White Center, 15th Ave SW from Roxbury south to 106/107 St — that needs a LOT of concrete. Much of it remains torn up for the road to be rebuilt with concrete. It is part of the H line route.

Niko April 19, 2022 (7:26 pm)

Typical Metro and Sound Transit behind schedule and over budget

Kevin on Delridge April 20, 2022 (12:17 am)

Oh wow, I am so glad you woke up from your coma. I guess you missed the pandemic and the widening economic inequality, and a general disillusionment with the status quo that contributed to these delays.

Very happy I could fill you in.
- Pessoa April 20, 2022 (11:35 am)
  
  Yes, there is a crisis of wealth distribution in this country and now the poor have to bear another cross – skyrocketing inflation. The old saw is true: The rich always get richer.
  - Kevin on Delridge April 21, 2022 (9:19 am)
    
    “The rich always get richer.”
    
    That is a choice we’ve made and one that we can unmake.

Pessoa April 20, 2022 (8:06 am)

The growing chasm between the have’s and have not’s is an undeniable crisis in this country. Half of Americans are invested in a stock market and companies that are profiting off inflation, a real economic hardship for the poor. But I don’t see many de-vesting themselves. Talk is cheap.

Lagartija Nick April 20, 2022 (9:20 am)

I’m a bit confused, what does the Avalon/35th/Alaska repaving project have to do with the construction timetable for a project on Delridge?

WSB April 20, 2022 (10:19 am)

Sorry, error, fixing.

foop April 20, 2022 (11:42 am)

Why can’t they increase frequency and roll out the new fleet while they continue revamping and building the shelters? Bus frequency and the slinky effect caused by delays and traffic is one of the biggest issues, I don’t understand why we can roll out that independent of the hard infrastructure?

Kyle April 20, 2022 (1:50 pm)

This project was mostly a ploy to use transportation money to fund basic street maintenance. The 120 already runs every 7 minutes. I don’t think they’ve promised faster trips. Delridge and other streets were in bad shape due to wear and tear/neglect. Instead of allocating capital maintenance dollars they disguised it as a bus upgrade to use different dollaes, even though bus trip won’t be faster.

1994 April 20, 2022 (10:18 pm)

Even though the bus trip won’t be faster at least it won’ t be as bumpy before Delridge got redone! Although in my passenger car it still seems bumpy, just not so bumpy as it was prior to the new concrete.
Kevin on Delridge April 21, 2022 (9:21 am)

It’s almost like our places are broke. I wonder why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IsMeKl-Sv0
Jort April 21, 2022 (10:26 am)

This is absolutely, 100 percent correct. The bulk of the cost of this project – the overwhelmingly highest contributor to the cost – was the resurfacing of the road, mostly to benefit continued private car traffic. The city and county duplicitously like to take “active transportation funds” intended to help cycling, walking and transit, attach a nominal “transit” benefit to the project’s scope, and then use the bus funds to repave the roads for cars. This is similar to how the city bundled the infrastructure improvement costs (sewer, power, water) for the 2nd Ave. bike lane into the cost, then saying, “look how astronomical the cost was for this bike lane!” For as much as I hear – constantly – about the “war on cars,” we see once again in this Delridge project (which actually removed bike lanes!) that the city always finds a way to make sure money gets spent to benefit drivers. Take, for example, the crowning achievement of the 2015 “Move Seattle” levy: the Lander Street freight bridge. It’s the biggest single expenditure from the levy and it was called “active transportation” because it tacked on a shared bike-ped sidewalk on one side that connects to zero other bike infrastructure. Buses don’t even use that bridge.

Sorry, comment time is over.