This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
There are new interactive maps and animations on Sound Transit’s site of what the various routes through Bellevue and Redmond might look like. A lot of it will probably be elevated, some will run at-grade, and some may run in a tunnel.
When I was thinking about transit-oriented development (TOD), I hadn’t really thought of First Hill as the place for it. Today, the Seattle Housing Authority, released news (behind paywall) about a massive development effort for the Yesler Terrace project on the south side of First Hill. From the DJC article:
The Seattle Housing Authority has released a conceptual plan for redeveloping the Yesler Terrace housing project on First Hill that calls for up to 5,000 new housing units and 1.5 million square feet of office space and 250,000 square feet of retail. Between five and eight acres would become parks and open space.
Currently Yesler Terrace has 561 units. The project would start in around 2011 and finish by 2026.
The site is about four blocks east of the Pioneer Square station, and the probable First Hill Streetcar route up Boren passes through the site. See a map below the fold. Now obviously, the transit isn’t the main reason that this redevelopment project is going here, but it’s a huge part of why the project can be so big. Continue reading “Yesler Terrace”
This quote from state Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond, as noted by Zach in the comments has me a little worried:
But state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said the state money can’t be used for increases in Metro bus service that are part of the surface-transit package, because the state constitution requires gas taxes to go toward highways.
“There’s been no decision on, if transit service is part of the package, how that gets paid for,” she said.
That’s pretty worrying.
Here is a visual update to Link Light-Rail for 12-11-08
Link is testing between South 154th Street Station and Othello Street station. Yesterday, I was passed by a 4 car set at 55mph (I was doing 25mph on I-5) The train-sets are now being stored at South 154th Street Station if you are looking for them.
Wire is mostly completed from Walden Street to Beacon Hill Tunnel. Wire is done inside of both Beacon Hill tunnels. Wire is not complete from the O&M to Beacon Hill Tunnel but the equipment is there and awaiting the crews that are finishing up at Walden Street.
All of the MLK Way stations appear to be visibly clear of construction equipment and the scissor lifts are also gone. Mt. Baker and Sea-Tac Airport stations are the last to be finished. The status of Beacon Hill station is unknown.
Rail is all the way into Sea-Tac Airport Station and the end of track. OCS installation and traction power station installation will be the last of “initial” segment.
Track speed from Tukwila Station to Sea-Tac Airport will be 35 to 55mph, speed through Beacon Hill Tunnel will be 55mph.
Spring 2009 will introduce full line testing from Westlake Station to S 154th Street. This testing will be at various times throughout the day as they ramp up to scheduled operation testing to opening day. Testing is also to get people used to seeing the trains interacting with buses in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) Testing to Sea-Tac Airport will at various times, mostly at night, starting in late Summer to Fall 2009.
That’s all for now! Less than 8 months until Opening Day!
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
Via The Overhead Wire, here’s Seattle’s list of “shovel-ready” projects that could theoretically be part of an infrastructure stimulus bill next year, as compiled by the US Conference of Mayors. There are a couple of Amtrak projects in there of interest to us, but most of the big job-creators are road projects. Not bad road projects, though! Good ones, like:
I wish we could be like progressive Salt Lake City and be for asking money to fund “five different light rail projects,” but hey, we’ll take what we can get.
Speaking of the Mercer project, Jan Drago and Nick Licata were on Weekday recently debating it. Licata opposes what he calls the gold-plated fix supported by the Mayor, Vulcan, and the majority of council. But he never put a price tag on a cheaper solution. He said we could have bike lanes, improved traffic times, and even straighten out the curves a bit for much less than the $200M the project would cost, but he never gave a number.
Lost in the general transit-palooza of the viaduct options is this little paragraph under surface/transit:
Examples of other surface street changes include new transit lanes on Madison, Stewart, Olive and Howell streets, among others, and converting Third Avenue to transit-only all day in downtown.
This is a big, big deal. As the endless streetcar comment threads attest, transit in its own right-of-way is the difference between a miserable trip and one that beats driving.
In the longer run, this’ll make it a lot easier for people to take transit to the Capitol Hill light rail station, too.
If Third Avenue is to become a transit mall, surely there isn’t a need for four lanes. Two in each direction and a center lane for passing should be adequate. I’ll leave it to the urban design folks to dream up things to do with that space, though I imagine a separated bike lane is pretty high up on the list.
Assuming the Governor picks this option…
To my hobby-horse, my lonely crusade to rip seats out of Metro Buses.
He has much better pictures than I ever did.
The Times reports (via Orphan Road) that the city, county, and state have narrowed the Viaduct down to two hybrid choices:
You can view the plans online at WSDOT’s website. (Thanks for the online transparency WSDOT, it’s greatly appreciated!)
Both options include I-5 and transit improvements, however the exact series of improvements is very much subject to change since funding beyond the state’s $2.8 billion has yet to be identified (the surface/transit option ranges from $3.1-3.5b and the elevated option ranges from $3.2b-3.8b the West Seattle Blog reports). Mayor Nickels and King County Executive Sims have both favored a surface/transit option over an elevated highway in the past, and they must now bring the state along.
Both plans include encouraging news for transit. Each include the Central Streetcar along 1st Avenue, new bus lanes in the city, and a new RapidRide BRT route from Delridge to Downtown. The Surface/Transit option includes a RapidRide route along Lake City Way, but both plans seem to have a strong investment in transit capital improvements. Surface/Transit funds about $206m more transit improvements, though, with more trolley wires being installed and additional bus service hours. Here’s the transit section of the Surface/Transit’s overview document (pdf):
Transit improvements include more all-day service than the elevated hybrid scenario. This would include increased service on Metro’s RapidRide routes for Ballard/Uptown, Aurora Avenue and West Seattle and new RapidRide routes on Delridge Way and Lake City Way. The waterfront streetcar would be replaced with a new First Avenue line between King Street and Seattle Center. Park and rides would be expanded in Burien, White Center and Shoreline. The Rapid Trolleybus Network would be expanded with new connections such as Madison Park to Colman Dock, Queen Anne to Capitol Hill, and Beacon Hill to Capitol Hill. Moderate investment would be made in other express and local routes in Seattle.
Apparently The Seattle Process is facing some difficulty at completely ruining the timeline for this decision further: last-minute additions by Chopp and downtown business owners have both been outright rejected from consideration, and tunneling indeed proved too costly to pursue. By the way, the Surface/Transit couplet gives us a 104 feet of open space on the waterfront.
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
I almost want to say Boo Ya but I won’t because there is one last alternative to the surface transit alternative. I really commend the state for throwing out all of the alternatives that should obviously not be advanced. Chopp’s alternative didn’t solve any problems (and just created more), and no matter how nice the tunnel sounds there simply is no money for it and if there is no money it will not happen. So the state made the hard choices and threw them out as it should have.
I would like to point out how the so called “grand compromise” was simply a political stunt by those that don’t want a surface alternative. They knew they had lost so they tried to circumvent the process at the last minute. The state rightly shut them down before they could even get momentum.
We should know what the governors choice is by the end of the year. I would be shocked if it isn’t the surface alternative. Now the major choices will be where transit money is spent and where is comes from.
A month or so ago, I couldn’t help but feel that our nation was approaching a sort of transportation tipping point, where the momentum was finally moving in the direction of re-envisioning person transportation from meaning just cars and airplanes. It was hard not to, with most transit measures passing nationwide, and the California High Speed Rail Proposition passing as well. I was worried a bit, though, with the House passing a $14 billion bailout that our leaders weren’t necessarily paying attention. The Senate seems to be set to stall the bill, but probably not because they feel the changing winds.
Continue reading “Tipping Point”