Key link in new highway corridor in south Renton closer to construction

Work on an important part of a new east-west highway corridor across south Renton, Wash., that will help ease congestion could begin in spring 2012, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reports. Key players in the project, including Renton, Tukwila, Boeing, BNSF and Sound Transit, recently held a high-level meeting on the project, known as the Southwest 27th/Strander Boulevard Connection.

"The group decided
to move forward with the project," Rich Perteet, Renton’s deputy public
works administrator for transportation, said of the verbal agreement.

The $20-million project
spans less than a mile from where Strander Boulevard dead-ends just east of the
West Valley Highway to near the Federal Reserve Bank in Renton, where it will
connect to Southwest 27th Street. But it’s the missing link in completing the
full corridor to the East Valley Highway. Proponents were hurrying to come to a
final decision to move forward or face the loss of millions of dollars in
federal funding.

Sound Transit also is
planning to develop its new Tukwila Station just to the north of the corridor,
which also affected the project.

Next week, Renton and
Tukwila, who are 50-50 partners in the project, will meet again to hammer out a
revised interlocal agreement for the project. Both cities also are working on
an agreement with BNSF for an underpass for the new roadway under the railroad
tracks. The Union Pacific railroad tracks also are affected by the project
farther to the east.

Perteet hopes to have the
agreement with BNSF done by the end of the year. Right-of-way would be acquired
late this year and early next year, with a contractor beginning work in spring
2012. The project would be completed by the end of 2012.

Strander Boulevard is one
of the major routes westward into Southcenter from the West Valley Highway just
south of Interstate 405 in Tukwila. East of West Valley, it’s just long enough
to give access to two restaurants. The stubby Strander is blocked by jersey
barriers; beyond those barriers is the Interurban Trail, the BNSF tracks and,
finally, Renton, where Strander becomes 27th Avenue Southwest.

The entire corridor
project will cost between $60 million and $70 million. Renton’s share is
expected to be no more than $4.5 million, Perteet said. Tukwila would
contribute the same amount.

BNSF also has plans to
build a third rail line through the valley, Perteet said, but there’s no
timeline for that yet. The line is necessary because of demands to carry more
freight, he said. That new line could affect Renton, too, because some of the
Sound Transit station could end up in Renton, he said.

Renton and Tukwila also
partnered in the 1980s to develop the South 180th Street corridor when the
border between the two cities was straightened, he said. The Strander/27th Southwest
corridor will help ease pressure on South 180th.