Sound Transit gears up for East Link South Bellevue station and alignment construction

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

Sound Transit will host an open house November 6, which will showcase the completed design for East Link's South Bellevue station and alignment and provide information on early construction activities that will start in 2015.

 

Starting in 2023, the 14-mile East Link light-rail extension will operate between downtown Seattle and Redmond’s Overlake area. Trains on the project’s South Bellevue segment will run on a combination of elevated, trench and at-grade trackway. The involvement of numerous Bellevue community members and the city’s Light Rail Citizen Advisory Committee played key roles in shaping the designs of the station.

The station will be an elevated structure on Bellevue Way at the current South Bellevue Park-and-Ride site that includes a new garage with 1,500 stalls. The station will serve as a regional transit hub with connections to buses serving numerous areas of East King County. Bus bays will be located directly below the station platform, providing easy connections to bus riders who will be freed from rising traffic congestion in the I-90 corridor. Sound Transit and King County Metro Transit are currently working to increase planning and service integration under a regional initiative launched by King County Executive and Sound Transit Board Chair Dow Constantine.

Early construction work that will get underway in 2015 includes developing traffic impact plans, relocating utilities and ongoing coordination with project partners to refine the construction schedule and duration. Heavier construction work in this segment will begin in late 2016 or early 2017.

By 2030, East Link is projected to carry about 50,000 riders each weekday. As the region’s population continues growing it will provide expanded transportation capacity to the I-90 corridor. Increases in the length and frequency of trains over time offer the capacity to carry from 8,000 to 12,000 people per hour in each direction, more than doubling the person-carrying capacity of I-90.

 

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