information from District 1 City Councilmember Lisa Herbold

Sound Transit has taken a critical next step in implementing Sound Transit 3 in releasing its “initial assessment” of potential additional alternatives to study in the Draft Environmental Impact statement for the West Seattle/Ballard light rail project.   If you recall, in May the Sound Transit Board selected options to study in the Draft EIS, and to do an initial assessment of other options, and decide later whether to include them in the EIS.

You can review and comment on the initial assessment results here.   The additional alternatives for Delridge are called “Yancy/Andover   Elevated” and “Pigeon Point Tunnel.”

I proposed this version of the Pigeon Point tunnel at the Sound Transit Stakeholder Advisory Committee meeting, as a more direct alternative to the earlier, longer version proposed - but ultimately unsupported - by Sound Transit that went further south.  Previously, it was called the “Pigeon Ridge tunnel” option. The good news is that this version of the tunnel is estimated to cost $200 million, which is $300 million less than the earlier $500 million version.

Public comment is open through October 4, 2019. Here’s a link to the presentation at the Sound Transit System Expansion Committee on September 12th.

This will be presented at the Sound Transit Board on September 26. On October 10, the System Expansion Committee will consider potential action to recommend whether to further study this in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.  The Sound Transit Board is scheduled to make a decision on October 24th.