These observations are from the Sound Transit Lunch Bus and members of construction crews that I have talked with the past few days. I rode the Sound Transit Lunch Bus on November 15th, 2007. It was a very pleasant trip and throughly enjoyed the MCI D4500 coach we had for the trip. Just needed a coffee, newspaper, and a place for laptop and I’d be set!
Rail is complete from Pine Street Tunnel located in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to Beacon Hill East Portal/Airport Way.
Rail is complete from Beacon Hill West Portland/MLK Way aka Mt. Baker to Tukwila International Blvd Station.
Rail is staged for Tukwila to Airport segment at Sea-Tac Airport. Guideway will be finished from Tukwila Intl. Blvd to the Airport by the end of the year. OCS poles have also been staged near
Foundation for Airport Station is finished and build up is in progress.
Central Link 101-110 is on the properly at the Operations and Maintenance Facility (unless it ST 108 was the last one.. thought I saw 109/110 sitting outside as well)
According to ST Public Relations, rail halfway completed in Southbound tunnel. The Emerald Mole/Tunnel Boring Machine is scheduled to come out of the Northbound Tunnel in mid-December. The TBM has been chewing 35-55 feet per day with good soil content.
Wire is strung from Tukwila Intl. Blvd Station to I-5/Southcenter and Martin Luther King Jr Way near Alaska St to Boeing Access Road, leaving I-5 to Boeing Access Road and Alaska Street to West Portal and through the tunnels remaining for wire.
Testing is scheduled to begin Spring/Summer 2008 from the O&M and Tukwila Intl. Blvd Station.
For more images of Central Link, including the Lunch Bus photos, check out my flickr…. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_macster
The TBMs … are they planning on using the same machines for the Downtown – Capitol Hill – University segment as well?
As far as I know, yes. The plant in Cashmere, Washington where the tunnel lining segments are coming from seems to have a stockpile of liners. I’m guessing this could be standby for the University Link project or it is material that still needs to be shipped out to Seattle. The stockpile is really coming down though. It will be interesting when the TBM pops out next month or so. Won’t look the same since the equipment is all that has been there.