KENT, Wash. — The opening of several Sound Transit light rail extension projects will be delayed a several months to more than a year because of various construction issues, the board for the Seattle-area agency was told last week.
The Seattle Times reports the East Link project, a line from downtown to Bellevue and Redmond, will open at least a year after its projected July 2023 date because 4 miles of concrete supports must be reinforced or rebuilt between Seattle and Mercer Island. The news site MyNorthwest.com reports that track is having to be removed on those 4 miles on either side of the floating bridge across Lake Washington, while KING-TV reports there are issues with precast blocks and fastener bolt inserts on the bridge itself.
Another section of that project, reaching further into Redmond, is now projected to be completed four to five months beyond the original December 2024 target, mostly because of delays resulting from a four-month strike by concrete-truck drives.
The concrete-truck strike is also responsible for a four-to-six-month delay on the northern extension from Northgate to Lynnwood, deputy CEO Kimberly Farley told the board. That addition had been expected to open in July 2024.
And the Federal Way extension between Angle Lake and Federal Way will require different underground supports after a July landslide in Kent showed the ground was more unstable than had previously been believed. That will push back completion of that segment from late 2024 into 2025.
Negotiations with construction companies over the delays are in progress, and no estimate of the costs resulting from the delays has been released.
— Updated at 7:15 a.m. CDT on Aug. 23 with additional details on East Link problems.
Share this article
