Sound Transit issues FEIS for East Link

Written by jrood

The upcoming extension of Sound Transit's light rail in the Seattle area to Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond, Wash., reached a major milestone with the distribution of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the East Link light rail project. The Final EIS documents the numerous benefits of connecting the region's largest population and employment centers with fast, frequent and reliable mass transit service, as well as project impacts and required mitigation. The publication positions the Sound Transit Board to select an East Link route and stations on July 28 or thereafter. By 2030, the East Link project is forecasted to move up to 50,000 riders each weekday. After the route and stations are selected and Sound Transit receives Federal Transit Administration approval through a Record of Decision, the project will move into final design. Sound Transit is expected to start construction of East Link in 2015 or 2016 and launch passenger service in 2022 or 2023. "The years of work summarized in this document position us to turn our region's vision of fast and reliable mass transit into real tracks, trains and stations. We are now poised to move forward," said Sound Transit Board and Bellevue City Council Member Claudia Balducci. "The time we've spent on detailed analysis and involving the public give Sound Transit and the City of Bellevue the information needed to cooperatively identify the route and mitigation options in Bellevue that will deliver the best results." The upcoming meetings of the Sound Transit Board and the Board's Capital Projects and Executive Committees will include review of the Final EIS, which includes more detailed analysis of the preferred alternatives the Board identified last year, as well as all of the other alternatives studied in the Draft and Supplemental Draft EIS documents. The official issuance date for the Final EIS is July 15, 2011.

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