WASHINGTON — Sound Transit will receive $583 million for two of its light rail expansion projects as part of the Fiscal 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) announced Wednesday.
The Federal Way Link extension will receive $329.14 million, while the Lynnwood Link extension will receive $254 million. The Federal Way money means the project is now fully funded three years ahead of schedule, Cantwell said, while the Lynnwood project is on a path to be fully funded in 2024.
“Sound Transit is in the midst of the largest transit expansion in the country,” Cantwell said in a press release, “and with the historic rise in inflation and costs for construction materials, it was critical that the federal government step up to help transit agencies expeditiously fund these types of large projects.”
The funds come from the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants program.
The funding announcement comes shortly after Sound Transit announced that delays to its East Link project could impact the start date of both the Lynnwood and Federal Way projects because other parts of the light rail system are dependent on access to a new maintenance facility in Bellevue, which is on the East Link line [see “Delays to Sound Transit’s East Link light rail …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 13, 2022].
