At last Wednesday’s board meeting, Sound Transit staff member Ahmad Fazel — the director of Link light rail — delivered the news that the schedule for Link’s July 3rd opening has ran out of float, or padding in the case of delays. That means any delays in construction or testing from here on out could affect the opening date of Seattle’s first light rail line. The schedule began with 180 days of float and the final days of it were impacted by last December’s snow storms that practically halted the city.
But Link is 96% complete and Fazel said he is “confident” that light rail will open on time. And any delays would be measured in days, not months. In addition, this first line is expected to be completed under-budget from the plan introduced in 2003.
The Beacon Hill station was identified as the “critical path” for the project, or the area most likely to introduce delay. So far, construction has been delayed by construction accidents and technical challenges with tunneling and installing the four high-speed elevators that deliver riders from street level to the platform in the rail tunnel 165 feet below. Those elevators are now installed and contractors working on the station have been given financial incentives to accelerate their work or work in parallel while other construction in the station is happening.
Airport Link, scheduled to open on December 31 of this year, still has over a week of float in its schedule.
(The Seattle Times also has a report on this subject.)
I’ve heard a rumor that the July 3rd opening of Link might be delayed because the Seattle Police Dept. has asked ST to do so. The rumor goes that the SPD will be overstretched because of the July 4th weekend and having massive crowds at the Link opening (with a police presence) would stretch the police too much. Is this true? Any info would be great.
Does it seem to anyone else that Link has been at 96% completion for quite a while?
Yeah, I’d imagine ‘testing’ is a single big checkbox that represents a few percent. :)
I doubt SPD will have any influence on opening day. I haven’t seen any light-rail operation be delayed because the police were worried about mass crowding. The security team there will be able to provide issues that come up. The initial police needed will be very minimal.
When I drive up and down MLK daily I see a cop at every intersection. Glad my transit dollars are going towards paying SPD overtime.
If Beacon Hill is not finished, how likely is it that they would go ahead with the official opening day without Beacon Hill in operation.
That is what I’ve been wondering. Can’t ST open Link on time and just have the trains bypass the Beacon Hill station until it is complete? Why hold up the rest of the system?
I know most of the supplies and personnel for the underground work are going in and out via the tunnels rather than the elevators to the above ground station. If there are delays for the underground station that could make running the trains through the tunnels at the same time more complicated than it would first seem.
Late August, NOT July.