SEATTLE — Sound Transit has launched construction of the $1.53-billion, 3.4-mile extension of its light rail Blue Line, also under construction, to southeast and downtown Redmond, Wash., on the eastside of Lake Washington in the Puget Sound region.
The extension, using both ground-level and elevated tracks, will start from Redmond Technology Station, located near Microsoft’s main campus, and add two stations. It’s scheduled to open in 2024, just a year after the line connecting Seattle to the Eastside is opened.
Sound Transit said the Redmond extension could see ridership of 43,000 to 52,000 a day by 2026. Trains will run every 8 minutes during peak weekday commutes.
Sound Transit has multiple construction projects under way at the moment. In addition to the Eastside projects, the agency is working on an extension of its main north-south line north from the University of Washington to Northgate and Lynnwood, and of its Tacoma light rail line.
@John Rice. You are correct about the nimbys who fought against passenger rail on the existing track. So yes, now it is history and replaced largely by a trail, which is fine in the end, as the track (and there was only one) didn’t really go through relatively very populated areas. As to the huge cost of doing business in the Seattle area, it is what it is. Crushing highway traffic is also what it is and I can’t believe that the Eastside light rail line won’t help to alleviate some of that gridlock. And in ten years, no one will be thinking about its cost–we will have moved on to something else. Who today thinks about/has angst over the cost of the original Link spine line? Now it’s the cost of the various extensions we fret over. These, too, shall pass.
I agree with Charles Landey and John Rice here. $398 million per mile, not counting “extras”, what a bargain.
Charles, I think part of the problem out here even on highway projects is the costs of everything. I lived in Redmond when I lived here before, still a great place to live if you have at least a million dollars falling out of your pocket. I always want to return to Minnesota, but unfortunately kids, grandchildren live here. Wife, misses them. Wished they lived in Midwest, lower costs and much better weather, never liked the cold rain here.
$398M per mile? That’s cheap compared to Honolulu’s rail project currently pegged at $500M per mile….with construction costs continuing to skyrocket.
Hawaii also shares the dubious honor of having the most expensive “Interstate Highway” (on a island??) built on a cost-per-mile basis. The cost to construct the 15-mile “H-3” roadway linking the Pearl Harbor Naval Complex and the Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station was $1.3 billion (approximately $80M per mile).
Guess it’s the “price of paradise”….and maybe a factor that over 37K (former) Hawaii residents have moved stateside during the past five years….
The residents made a great deal of noise to get the rail around the east side of Lake Washington out and turn it into a trail. Now they spend more billions to put a train back in around town.
I’m all for public rail transit, but 398 million per mile. How can that be possible? Gold plated rail? I just can’t see it. And that’s before the inevitable cost overruns. This is huge ammunition for folks who are against rail transportation.
1.53 Billion for 3.4 Miles… If you voted for this propo…. Never mind let me keep it too myself…
The capital recovery for $1.5 Billion at, say, 6%, is about $100 million a year. Or about $80 a ride JUST FOR THE EXTENSION.
And puh- leeze don’t start in on the cost of freeways. A billion dollars or so got Milwaukee County’s Zoo Interchange completely rebuilt – but that’s something like 15 miles of 8-lane freeways (IH 94 and IH 41). With twenty or thirty times or more the traffic count of this trolley, plus all the cargo on all those trucks.
Having moved to Minnesota in 1998 and moving back here in 2016, I can say the cost does not surprise me. Everything in this area is nuts cost wise with insane property values rivaling the Bay Area. What a difference from 1998. Plus traffic congestion that is almost legendary.