U.S. Sen. Patty Murray joined other officials on Friday, April 26 in a groundbreaking ceremony for the Angle Lake light-rail station to be built at South 200th Street and 28th Avenue South in SeaTac.

Preliminary construction is already underway at Sea-Tac Airport and project construction is set to begin this month. The station is slated to open in September 2016, four years earlier than originally planned.

The sped-up construction schedule is designed to alleviate parking pressure at the Tukwila International Boulevard Station. The new 200th station will feature a 700 parking garage as well as a temporary surface parking lot. The surface lot may go away when light rail is extended to the Kent/Des Moines Road-Highline Community College area in 2023.

The early opening will also coincide with the opening of the University of Washington light rail station. Officials say UW students will be able to go from the Angle Lake Station to the university in 49 minutes on light rail.

Light rail will extend 1.6 miles from the Sea-Tac City Center/airport station on an elevated guideway. The new station will straddle South 200th Street with entrances on both the north and south sides of the street.

The elevated station will include covered waiting areas, public art and a plaza that SeaTac staffers hope serves as a neighborhood gathering area.

SeaTac Mayor Tony Anderson noted at the groundbreaking ceremony that the elevated station will have excellent views of Mount Rainier, Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound. He suggested photographers will come to the station to take pictures of the sunset.

With the opening of the new station, the city of SeaTac will have two light-rail stations with a third one, the Tukwila station, across the street from the city limits at Tukwila International Boulevard and South 154th Street. King County Council vice chair Julia Paterson said Sound Transit has invested over $700 million for the three stations along the south Highway 99 corridor.

Sen. Murray, chair of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Committee, worked with the Federal Transit Administration and Sound Transit to secure $26 million in federal funding.

She said $5,000 riders a day are expected to use the south SeaTac station.

“That’s 5,000 more customers for local businesses and 5,000 less cars on Interstate 5,” Murray said.

When the UW station is opened, 250,000 riders a day are expected to use light rail throughout the system, Murray added.

Gov. Jay Inslee was scheduled to attend the ceremony but stayed in Olympia as the state Legislature grapples with the state budget. Paterson noted Inslee was the first governor ever scheduled to attend a light-rail groundbreaking.

The new state transportation secretary, Lynn Peterson, represented the governor. Peterson noted the Angle Lake station project will generate 2,600 local jobs.

Councilmember Patterson, who represents the SeaTac area, said the city contains many working class families who cannot afford cars and are very dependent on affordable transit.

Patterson said it will take 31 minutes to go from the station to the sports stadiums and 49 minutes to downtown Seattle.

She also noted the station is close to the Des Moines Creek Trail and the proposed “Lake to Sound” Trail that would link Lake Washington in Renton with Puget Sound in Des Moines.

Patterson, who announced earlier in the day that she will not seek re-election after 23 years in public office, noted she has fond memories of riding her horse, Dusty, down Highway 99. She joked that a statue of her and her horse should be erected at the station.

State Rep. Dave Upthegrove noted he grew up in the area as the son of an airline pilot and flight attendant. He said light-rail trains connect people much like airplanes.

Sea-Tac Airport director Mark Reis said the airport is the front door to the region for domestic travelers and the front door to the United States for foreign travelers. He said airline travelers are increasingly using light rail when they land.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said light rail is used not only by job commuters but students, shoppers and spectators at major regional events.

He added work is already underway to extend light rail south to Des Moines, Federal Way and Tacoma.