Sound Transit Board
Central Link Oversight Committee
Thursday, May 16th, 2002[Notes by John Deeter]
Attending: Sullivan (chair), Patterson, Thomas, McIver (late), Gates (very late).
Absent: Earling, Hague, Pelz.Link Segment Updates
Ahmad Fazel (staff): reports on the initial segment. Contracts for E-3 corridor and maintenance base are almost ready for bidding [next month]. ST is going to ask the FTA for a letter of no prejudice to start construction this summer [well in advance of signing the FFGA].
[Another staff member]: reports on the alignments under study for routing through Sea-Tac, either west of the cemetery, just west of SR-99, or in the middle of SR-99. Possible station locations are near 170th St. or 180th St., all close to SR-99 except for northern station location on the west of the cemetery alignment. [Note: 180th St. station would be just east of the existing parking garage.] ST looking at decoupling Link and Airport construction. Staff has also looked at alignment cutting through the cemetery, but the possible impacts (grave relocation, etc.) are so severe that no one (including the ST Board members present) wants to do this.
Ron Endlich (staff): reports on North Link. Staff recommends deleting the option with stations at CPS and Capitol Hill, since it has greater costs and risks than the option with a single station on Capitol Hill without any increase in ridership. (Cross-overs on Capitol would still be needed, and the passage under I-5 is more difficult.) This would leave three options between the DSTT and the U District still active. Staff also recommends dropping the Montlake alignment with a station diagonally across 15th Ave. just north of 45th St., and replacing it with an alignment that would jog over to Brooklyn Ave. with a station just north of 45th St. (The Montlake alignment with an on-campus station just south of 45th St. would be retained.) This would leave five options through the U District still under consideration. [See below for a full listing of options that ST staff now recommends for study in the North Link SEIS.]
Endlich: UW regents and ST Board members met recently -- UW is agreeing to fund part of the SEIS studies. In the Rooselvelt District, WSDOT has settled on a minimum 23-foot setback from I-5 for the 8th Ave. alignment, so current designs for this option remain valid.
Sullivan: questions the UW's vibration requirements, and suggests ST should have UW Physics department help develop mitigation. McIver: wants UW to reimburse ST for study money if it rejects Montlake alignment. Endlich: suggests that when there are firm estimates for all alignments the trade-offs will be clearer.
Patterson: asks if ST has gotten geotechnical advice from the UW geophysics program. Endlich: yes, three years ago. UW has reviewed testing protocols. McIver: recalls that UW physics requirements were below detection level, [wanting mitigation for] vibrations so small they can't be measured.
Thomas: ST should get UW to see that Link is a win-win proposition, if it looks beyond just the vibration issue and also considers transportation benefits. Joni Earl (Executive Director): recent meetings with McCormick [UW President] and Ihrig [UW Executive VP] have been positive. Ihrig had been unhappy that ST eliminated alternatives that he wanted to be looked at further [presumably Earl is referring to the high-level bridge option with a Campus Parkway station], but discussion with ST staff got this issue off the table.
Link Agreements Status
Paul Matsuoka (staff): ST and KC have renegotiated their agreement regarding the DSTT in view of probable joint use. ST and Tukwila have finalized their MOA, having resolved outstanding issues such as how long 154th St will remain the interim terminus and moving an historic building sitting on the projected ROW. This MOA is needed before the FTA will grant ST premission to start final design on the initial segment.
Sullivan: wants committee to move this MOA to the full Board, but only four members are present and need a quorum of five. Earl: will try to summon Gates, who is in another meeting.
Patterson: commends ST staff for improving relationship with Tukwila.
Gates appears, and the Tukwila MOA is moved to the full Board on a unanimous vote.
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Alignments ST staff now recommends for study in the North Link SEIS
Capitol Hill/Eastlake
U District
- Capitol Hill two stations (Broadway/John and First Hill) -- old LPA
- Capitol Hill single station (Broadway/John)
- Eastlake two stations (CPS and Harrison)
- Portage Bay two stations (Pacific and 45th) -- old LPA
- Montlake two stations (Rainier Vista and 15th south of 45th)
- Montlake two stations (Rainier Vista and Brooklyn north of 45th)
- West crossing one station (Brooklyn/45th)
- West crossing two stations (Brooklyn at 40th and 45th)
Ron Endlich assured me that the Capitol Hill LPA alignment is still very much alive, and staff is actively making refinements to it. As far as I know, this is not true for the U District portion of the LPA which at this point no one believes will be selected again. It is included for comparison purposes only.
I also tried to get Ron to give me an estimate of the cost differential between the single Capitol Hill station and the two station (Capitol Hill and First Hill) alteratives -- the best I could do was to get him to say it was less than $200 M. In my opinion this is not a significant enough cost savings to justify losing some 15,000 daily rides generated by a First Hill station.
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