Sound Transit approves light rail route to Lynnwood, Terrace

SEATTLE — The Sound Transit board of directors unanimously approved a route Thursday to take Link light rail to Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace by 2023.

The 8.5-mile addition would extend service to the Lynnwood park-and-ride lot from Northgate. Trains would stop along the way at the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center, and in Shoreline at NE 185th Street and 145th Street.

The whole addition would open at once, rather than in stages.

Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling, a Sound Transit board member, called the project “a vital lifeline for commuters tired of dealing with traffic and congestion along I-5.”

“We’re finally fixing the alignment, which has been a long-waited event,” Earling said.

Voters in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties first voted in 1996 to authorize Sound Transit to build a transit system that would one day bring light rail to regional population centers, including Everett. The funding mechanism is the Regional Transit Authority, which collects taxes on retail sales, motor vehicle excise and rental car sales.

Voters in 2008 authorized a separate $17 billion sales-tax measure that includes the extension now being planned to Lynnwood. It’s also paying to extend light rail service east to Bellevue and Redmond’s Overlake neighborhood and south to Kent and Des Moines.

It’s likely to take nearly 20 years or longer from now for light rail to reach Everett — some 40 years after the original vote. That schedule depends in part on whether voters approve an expansion proposal called Sound Transit 3 or ST3 that could reach the ballot in 2016.

Construction on the Lynnwood extension is expected to start in 2018 and cost up to $1.7 billion.

When complete, a light-rail commute from Lynnwood to downtown Seattle should take 28 minutes, Sound Transit estimates. By 2035, up to 74,000 riders are expected to use the line each weekday.

The route approved Thursday would run along the east side of I-5 from Northgate through Shoreline. It would cross to the west side of the freeway after the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center, where an elevated light-rail station would be built over 236th Street SW.

The board favored a design to accommodate two future stations along I-5 at 220th Street SW in Mountlake Terrace and at NE 130th Street in Seattle, without impacting service during construction. With no money available, it’s unclear when those stations would get built.

The plan calls for building an elevated light-rail station and a 1,300-stall parking garage at the Lynnwood park-and-ride lot at 20100 48th Ave. W.

The route would take up parts of three Edmonds School District properties, including two where old schools were torn down in Mountlake Terrace: the Evergreen Elementary site, south of the transit center, and the Melody Hill Elementary site, on 220th Street.

The train tracks also would cross over a portion of property on 52 Avenue West where the school district plans to build a new bus maintenance and parking facility. District and Sound Transit staff have been cooperating to avoid conflicts on the property, said Amanda Ralston, a district community relations specialist.

The route also could affect three residential properties at 212th Street SW and five more south of the former Melody Hill school site, according to an environmental impact statement released in early April. In Lynnwood, the project would likely displace nine businesses with approximately 60 employees, but no homes. It would affect wetlands near Scriber Creek, but avoid Lynnwood’s Scriber Creek Park.

Sound Transit has notified all of the property owners who could be affected, agency spokesman Bruce Gray said.

Construction crews are now building the light-rail segment between Husky Stadium and Northgate, scheduled to open in 2021.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.