Comments on: University Link Construction Begins

By: Daughter of the Ring of Fire » Blog Archive » A Stressful Morning

Daughter of the Ring of Fire » Blog Archive » A Stressful Morning — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:47 +0000

[...] University Link Construction Begins (seattletransitblog.com) No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post) Spread the word: [...]

By: uh huh

uh huh — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:56:15 +0000

Daniel, my friend, you ask why does a station take two years? Simple. These are essentially eight-story buildings constucted underground. Name me a 6+-story condo/office building anywhere in the region that is built ABOVE ground and opened in less than two years. It doesn’t exist. Underground construction adds a whole different level of complexity. So to recap:

tunnel boring: 3 years
station blds: 2 years
systems &
testing: 2 years
total: 7 years

There it is. U-Link in operation: priceless

By: eddiew

eddiew — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:30:12 +0000

Daniel K.: Yes, 2016 is 20 years after Sound Move was adopted. A major factor in the pace of north Link LRT implementation is the 2001 ST Board decision to build south first. They had a fiscal crisis and learned that the Portage Bay tunnel was more than could be afforded. Later, soil testing confirmed that the Montlake Cut alignment was feasible. If the initial line had been Capitol Hill to South McClellan Street, there may have been enough North King County funds to reach NE 45th Street in Sound Move. Of course, the south King County Link LRT funds would have been redeployed on other projects and the three-county board did not want to do that.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:04:17 +0000

In the case of U-link complaining about the construction time line is mostly a waste of time. Any slack in the schedule will be needed if there are any unexpected problems.

By: Daniel K

Daniel K — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:24:55 +0000

I don’t want to just complain about it, but we should all be doing that much. My point is we don’t complain about it enough, and accept financing solutions that provide trickle funding that slows down the construction of these projects.

Nothing gets done one anything unless enough people start complaining about it, and this is no different. We’ll continue to build these projects at a snail’s pace, with insufficient funding approaches, as long as we continue to accept that’s just the way it is.

Take the East Link line, where we’re going to have to wait until 2021. That’s forever and it still doesn’t get beyond Overlake. We should be able to do better than that and we should be complaining at every opportunity that the development plan is too slow.

By: Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:49:49 +0000

Well the hell does that mean? Do you have a plan to speed it up or you just want to complain about it?

I’d rather have had it 10 years ago, 50 years ago. Of course I’d rather have had it in two years compared to seven, but not much can be done about it.

By: Daniel K

Daniel K — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:47:20 +0000

That’s still 18 months faster.

Hey, but if you guys like waiting a decade for a project to complete, knock your socks off. At some point you too will figure your life will have slipped away waiting.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:26:54 +0000

Yes it is largely symbolic. But these things often are.

Nonetheless many of us had been waiting for this day for a long time.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:26:01 +0000

Please provide an example of a similar project that was finished sooner elsewhere.

With Sound Transit, you also have to remember there are some cash-flow issues. ST doesn’t get the FTA grant all at once, and ST has to wait for tax revenue to come in before they can pay for some things.

Still I don’t believe that even if Sound Transit had all of the money needed to build U-link right now that much more than 12-18 months could be squeezed out of the schedule.

By: Daniel K

Daniel K — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:49:45 +0000

We’re talking 3 miles of track!

I think we’re all becoming apologists for the pace of work on these projects when we should be railing against such extended timelines. Other countries can build faster than we can, and we shouldn’t settle for that.

By: SeattleHound » Light Rail News

SeattleHound » Light Rail News — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:57:23 +0000

[...] more good news. The airport line hasn’t even opened yet, and already they’ve broken ground on the University Link, heading north from downtown to the University of Washington campus. Where the airport line is [...]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:27:39 +0000

The station itself probably takes a year or so. But there’s laying the tracks and running the wires, and that takes a long time.

Plus, they have to test more than just the drivers!

By: Daniel K

Daniel K — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:00:06 +0000

Why should it take 2 years to build a station? I’m always wondering why we turn these projects into bigger things than they have to be, and often that starts with the stations.

Drivers should now be able to get trained on Central Link, so that shouldn’t have to wait. I mean come on, they’re on rails, on their own right of way on U-Link, so how hard can it be to drive it that it would require a year?

By: JDmoney

JDmoney — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:49:27 +0000

What a photo opp!
Just a pile of dirt dumped on the grass.

By: ericn

ericn — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:46:56 +0000

Remember, they can’t start building the stations until tunneling is complete, since both the Capitol Hill and UW stations are being used to remove dirt from the tunnels. Let’s say tunneling takes 3 years, station-building takes 2 years, and testing/driver training takes another year—that’s a perfectly reasonable schedule which takes 6 years total. ST might be able to slice off a year, but only with a lot of money for the post-tunneling parts.

By: Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:56:30 +0000

Just the tunneling goes until 2013, that’s just the tunneling. Only after the tunneling is finished can you lay tracks, put up the eletric overhead wire and build the stations.

Even after that, it needs to be tested a whole bunch before it can open to the public.

By: joshuadf

joshuadf — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:14:11 +0000

Yeah, we’ll be a bit closer to Roosevelt. Not too much, though.

By: Daniel K

Daniel K — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:11:49 +0000

Chris – Sure, but you’re suggesting this necessarily has to take 6 years for a few miles. Explain why it can’t be done by 2013. We continue to accept that these projects take 7, 10 or 15 years. You can’t tell me that they can’t be constructed faster.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:53:41 +0000

Huh? Surely you understand that an extremely complex engineering and construction project takes time to build. Especially one involving extensive underground tunneling.

By: Daniel K

Daniel K — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:38:06 +0000

Please explain why.