Two notes related to the West Seattle Link Extension light-rail project:
BOARD MEETING: The routing/station-location decision is expected at next month’s Sound Transit Board meeting, but two related items are on the agenda for the board’s 1:30 pm meeting this afternoon. One is a presentation about the newly released Final Environmental Impact Statement. The other addresses its revelation that the projected cost is now as high as $7.1 billion; at last week’s Executive Committee meeting, board chair King County Executive Dow Constantine mentioned he’d be making a motion for a “workplan” to address that. The motion was available on the ST website yesterday but the list of documents for today’s board meeting seems to be temporarily unavailable, so we’re requesting the motion via email to link here in case that doesn’t get fixed quickly. (Update: Here it is.) The agenda explains how to attend this afternoon’s meeting, either in-person or online.
DROP-IN SESSION #1: We got to Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in the final half-hour of last night’s two-hour drop-in session offered for people with questions about the Final EIS. ST says next Tuesday’s session in The Junction will offer the same components, so we made note of those during our visit. First, of course, easels:
Of the ~20 boards on easels and tabletops, only a few focus on specific segments of the route. Most are more big-picture, such as showing the West Seattle spur’s place in the regional network, both when it opens in 2032 and when the Ballard extension opens in 2039:
You can browse a hard copy of the Final EIS:
And if you have questions about the property-acquisition process, there was a table for that:
Since the release of the Final EIS did not trigger the same type of formal comment period as the Draft EIS in 2022, this meeting isn’t geared toward commenting, although ST’s Rachelle Cunningham told us whatever’s received will be shown to the board. We saw scattered sticky notes:
The two remaining drop-in sessions – no presentations, just the opportunity to view materials like these and ask questions one-on-one – are set for Tuesday, Oct. 1, 4:30-6:30 pm at Alki Masonic Center (4736 40th SW), with Spanish and Vietnamese interpretation available, and Wednesday, Oct. 2, 11 am-1 pm at Gallery B612 (1915 First Ave. S. in SODO).
| 99 COMMENTS