Here is a visual assessment for February 16, 2008 on the Central segment of Link Light Rail.
Vehicle Count:
16 of 35 vehicles are on the O&M property.
Order for additional LRV’s should be coming up the end of the year for University Link.
Track Installation:
Trackwork is complete from Pine Street Station to the Airport Expressway.
The rest is dependent on the Port of Seattle work on the new Expressway road construction to Sea-Tac Airport which is slated to open in Spring 2008. The SR 518 Sea-Tac Airport to I-5/I-405 Interchange Project improves existing mobility and safety and accommodates projected airport traffic by adding a third eastbound lane on SR 518 between the North Airport Expressway and the I-5/I-405 Interchange. This is slated to open in Fall 2009.
Overhead Contact System (OCS):
Overhead Contact poles are installed from Tukwila International Blvd. Station to Mt. Baker Station. Support arms for the wire are being installed from SR-599 to MLK Way.
Unknown status within Beacon Hill Tunnel.
Powered tests is in operation between the O&M and Pine Street Tunnel. Tunnel testing is only on weekends and weeknights.
Signal System:
95% of the signaling is up and running though testing is required between Beacon Hill Tunnel and Tukwila Station but from a visual standpoint, they were all be a few lit up amber “hold”
All grade crossings are installed and operational. Royal Brougham is activated only during tunnel testing at this time.
Beacon Hill Tunnel:
No update on the progress but it has been about an month. I would expect the punch through sometime in the next week or so judging by the sudden influx on equipment around the site now (Big cranes) and flatbeds around the work site.
Stations:
New signs are being installed at Westlake Center Station today.
Westlake, University, Pioneer Square, International District, Stadium, Lander, and Henderson Street Stations are complete and ready for Link service.
Beacon Hill, Mt. Baker, Columbia City, Othello, Tukwila International Blvd, and Sea-Tac Airport are still under construction.
Transit Oriented Development (TOD):
Most noticeable is the remodeling of several apartments near the Tukwila International Blvd Station site and all up and down Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Low-income housing is in place instead of the old “projects” that was common from Rainier Avenue to Alaska Street. I’ve went to a couple of showings of these homes and they are very nice though some of the models were a bit cramped but that is what your getting for the new urban development. If Portland or Charlotte is any heads up, bigger condos and such will go up soon enough if the demand is there.
That’s all for now, but do you want more? Want to see the construction up close and personal on a guided tour of Link? Ride the Sound Transit Lunch Bus on one of their plush MCI D4500 Commuter Coaches. Reclining seats, guest speakers and enjoy excellent, excellent, local food at a select location. Ask questions, be heard, and enjoy what is coming to you in 16 months from now!
16 LRVs on property now? Must store most of them inside, because what I have seen from the 39, at best 7 are parked outside. Anyway, on another forum/blog, a poster asked me once about this phantom railroad he saw in SODO, described it being near the old Ranier Brewery. It was the first he had ever noticed that LINK was under construction. Media does a good job of ignoring stories it does not want to cover. Anyway, good to see more progress is coming. Wished we had it operational by now, but that’s water under the bridge, I hope.
Yeah, there rest are inside doing final assembly. I think they can store 2 per storage bay and there are at least 6 bays which are used for doing that type of work. Everything else is done at a Boeing hanger in Everett, Wa
Going to be a site to see in November, since the August Primary for Governor is a formality. When the Republican goes after Sound Transit as having nothing accomplished, the opposition should be charged with dereliction of duty if they do not show the testing videos(bloggers will, MSM, no. Dori Monson rarely if ever mentions something has been built because it is prejudicial to his tirades), and the photos of the LINK LRVs at the maintenance facility. They are visible from I-5, same with the Tukwilla Elevated. Now if only I-5 was below the elevated portion heading into the Beacon Hill Tunnel. In a way, where it crosses I-5 at Boeing Access Road, it literally puts LINK in the face of it’s critics, where they cannot ignore that it is almost finished. Having testing of the LRVs on it once the Beacon Hill Tunnel is complete, will be an even better countermeasure. Also, notice how the main crusader in the State Senate against ST and how it is funded and governed, got distracted with something that was more important to her own district. I normally do not believe in coincidences, but amazing. Although I have said about one South King/North Pierce State Senator(Republican), should also apply to State Senator Haugen. Before they criticize their opponents, or label them as Downtown Seattle Liberal(as Roach loves to do), look at their district map. She likes to go after my State Senator exactly like that, but one problem. Not much of the residential area of Downtown Seattle is in his district. He is mostly Ranier Valley, with a small portion of Downtown South of James St. Senator Haugen supposedly said she had constitutents that did not know who their representative on the Sound Transit Board is. Her district is nowhere near Sound Transit’s District.