SEATTLE — Sound Transit’s light rail Crosslake Connection — the section of Line 2 across Lake Washington to complete the route to Redmond, Wash. — will open on March 28, the transit agency announced Friday.
The section between International District/Chinatown and South Bellevue, which will connect Line 2 with the north-south Line 1, includes the unique floating bridge shared with Interstate 90.
“After decades of hard work, creative design, and world-class engineering, we are finally linking the east and west sides of Lake Washington with rail,” Sound Transit Board Chair Dave Somers said in a press release. “I applaud all those who worked on this project, and I appreciate the patience of the traveling public as the project worked through many barriers. Today is a very important milestone, and we look forward to Link light rail connecting Tacoma, Seattle, Everett, and Bellevue in the not-too-distant future.”
The completed Line 2 “will serve 26 stations and more than 35 miles,” said board member Girmay Zahilay, “while knitting together five King County cities and two Snohomish County cities, creating new transit hubs throughout the region.” It will add two new stations and expand the full Link light rail network from 55 to 62 miles.
Completion of the 7.4-mile connection comes more than two years after the original projected opening date of mid-2023. The delay stems from construction delays including the need to rebuild or reinforce concrete supports on 4 miles of approaches to the floating bridge section, as well as precast blocks and fastener bolts on the bridge itself [see “Construction delays push back opening …,” Trains.com, Aug. 22, 2022]. Sound Transit eventually elected to open an isolated but completed section of Line 2 between South Bellevue and Redmond in 2024 [see “Sound Transit launches …,” April 28, 2024n
Full details on opening day will be announced at a future date at this page on the Sound Transit website. Sound Transit produced the video below on the floating bridge project.
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