Concrete workers offer unconditional return to work, but damage is done to light-rail projects in Seattle area

Sound Transit has a plan in place to lower carbon levels in construction zones.

Concrete mixer and dump truck drivers will be returning to work in the Seattle area, but the foundation of light-rail projects has been cracked.

Sound Transit said four major light-rail projects were impacted by the five-month concrete strike, and officials are currently trying to determine how it impacted completion dates.

Ron Lewis, executive director of Sound Transit’s Design, Engineering and Construction Management Group, said progress has been greatly slowed down for several months, and that the strike will have a meaningful impact on all projects.

The four light-rail projects that were slowed are in King and Snohomish counties. A 14-mile extension to Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond, and extension to downtown Redmond, the Lynnwood project, and an almost 8-mile extension to Kent and Federal Way were victims of the concrete strike.

Ready-mix concrete and dump truck drivers from Teamsters Local 174 offered an unconditional return to work that started on April 11. Negotiations for a new contract continues, and Lewis is hopeful delays will not become a pattern.

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