Bellevue's creative tunnel vision

THE Eastside has emerged as a strong, enthusiastic proponent of light rail, joining innovative ideas and long-range visions of the region's development, making civic leaders' call for a tunnel under downtown Bellevue worth serious consideration.

Sound Transit officials estimate a tunnel would add between $500 million to $600 million to the overall cost of the regional transit expansion between downtown Seattle and downtown Redmond. The added cost shouldn't be taken lightly. Nor should it be discounted as economically out of reach.

As Sound Transit's board of directors this week choose the focus of further engineering studies, a tunnel ought to be included. Pushing forth a tunnel, in addition to the surface option, allows further research on the costs, benefits and impacts of each.

"This is an opportunity to provide a major regional connection," Bellevue Mayor Grant Degginger said.

It is also an opportunity to get this right. Bellevue is King County's second-largest employment center; conversely, it is a young city with grids and street patterns reminiscent of its suburban origins. The city's unusual street grids will provide challenges in moving people through the downtown core to Interstate 405. The surface option would have light-rail trains crossing two major arterials, Northeast Fourth and Northeast Eighth streets, every nine minutes during rush hour.

That the Bellevue City Council, the Bellevue Downtown Association and other civic leaders agree on a tunnel option ought to carry weight with Sound Transit.

Conversely, the city must come to the negotiating table with more than a vision. It must help identify sources for the money. To its credit, Bellevue has found ways to reduce costs of the project by endorsing a surface route through the Bel-Red corridor, a savings of $100 million. To save more money, the city chose a surface route rather than an elevated structure to run along Bellevue Way.

More creativity is needed with an eye toward partnerships, perhaps from the federal government and other sources. Sound Transit should continue to weigh the tunnel option.