LIGHT RAIL: West Seattle ‘further studies’ items get briefest of briefings

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Toward the end of a four-hour meeting today, the West Seattle portion of Sound Transit‘s light-rail “further studies” briefing lasted just a few minutes. That was not entirely surprising, since the rest of the briefing for the ST Board’s System Expansion Committee included sections for which big decisions have yet to be made.”Gotta fish or cut bait pretty soon here” is how ST board member Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell put it regarding those decisions. ‘

But the briefing did illuminate a few things for the West Seattle segment. For one, ST staff put forward a possible “end-to-end scenario” that incorporated two of the three “studied” possibilities for West Seattle – moving the entrance to the Junction station and shifting the Delridge alignment – but did not include the potential removal of the Avalon station. That doesn’t mean this is what staff is necessarily formally proposing or supporting, but it’s worth noting that it’s what they showed as an example.

Before getting to that slide, ST’s Cathal Ridge showed slides going back through the three West Seattle “further studies” proposals (explained in this memo). The most detailed was the possible Delridge “refinement,” which Ridge said had been evolving as design work proceeded:

Here’s the “updated concept” addressing some of the Delridge station concerns:

Another major concern that had come up earlier in the process was the potential effects on Transitional Resources, a nonprofit serving people living with behavioral-health challenges, with services and facilities including supportive housing. As this slide showed, the current alignment goes right through the heart of its operations:

The “refinement” shown today wouldn’t entirely spare Transitional Resources, but would reduce the major effect to one smaller property, Ridge said:

Uphill from there, he had little elaboration about the possibility of dropping the Avalon station, beyond what this slide shows:

Earlier in the meeting, leading off the public-comment section, City Councilmember Lisa Herbold urged board members to think about how elimination of the Avalon station might affect low-income High Point residents needing to get to light rail. Meantime, back to the last “further studies” area, here are the slides shown for the possible relocation of the Junction station entrance:

This option, it was clarified in response to a question, would only move the entrance, not the station itself.

So what’s next? For the West Seattle items, that’s up in the air. No vote is required (until the vote later this year that finalizes “the project to be built,” after the Final Environmental Impact Statement comes out). The board does have to vote on a “preferred alternative” for the rest of the West Seattle/Ballard extensions, beyond SODO, and is expected to do that next month. One thing we do know is that they’re still taking community feedback on all the “further studies” items (see the full 134-page slide deck here) and will get a summary at the full board’s February 23rd meeting, so if you feel strongly about one or more of these possible changes, now’s the time to say something. Here’s a survey, open for one more week (until February 17th), also reachable from the “further studies” section of the West Seattle/Ballard Link Extensions website.

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