Eastside transit proposals unveiled

By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Sound Transit yesterday rolled out the first, conceptual plans for what a second round of high-capacity transit projects on the Eastside might look like.

Agency policy and planning officer Paul Matsuoka said Sound Transit will study three options:

• A light-rail or monorail line across Interstate 90 to Bellevue, with spur lines north to Kirkland and Totem Lake; northeast to Overlake and Redmond; and east to Eastgate and Issaquah.

• "Busways" — bus-only lanes or roads — perhaps including one in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad's Eastside right of way between Coal Creek Parkway and Totem Lake.

• Improved bus service using freeway high-occupancy-vehicle lanes (HOV), including new bus-only ramps directly linking the HOV lanes on Interstate 405 with those on I-90 and Highway 520.

Elements from each alternative could be mixed and matched as the Sound Transit board settles on a package of projects and taxes to submit to voters, Matsuoka said.

The board isn't scheduled to make that decision until spring 2006.

Any new package also would include projects in the rest of Sound Transit's three-county district. But Matsuoka said the Eastside warrants special, early attention because the question of what kind of transit to build across I-90 to the Eastside — light rail, monorail or "bus rapid transit" — has divided the region for years.

Information on projected ridership, costs and other aspects of the three options should be ready by February. The board could make a preliminary decision next spring.

Bellevue Mayor Connie Marshall, a member of Sound Transit's board, said she prefers any alternative that offers transit a dedicated right of way it doesn't have to share with other traffic. "It's important that it be fast and reliable," she said.
 
But if that's not important to the public, Marshall said, she's willing to change.

Scheduled finish

Voters approved the first round of Sound Transit projects in 1996. All are scheduled to be finished by 2009. While Seattle, South King County, Snohomish County and Pierce County are getting light rail or commuter rail or both, all the Eastside's projects are bus-related.

Improving bus service on HOV lanes would be an extension of what Sound Transit already is doing on the Eastside and would be relatively inexpensive, Matsuoka told the Sound Transit board yesterday. Freeway "in-line" bus stations and "direct-access," HOV-only ramps — like one now under construction in downtown Bellevue — would be built.

Bus-only ramps linking HOV lanes on the Eastside's three major freeways would be the costliest element, Matsuoka said. But some couldn't be built without major reconstruction of freeway interchanges, he added.

The "busway" option would convert the two reversible center lanes of I-90 between I-5 and I-405 to one bus-only lane in each direction. More bus-only lanes could be built along the little-used Burlington Northern Santa Fe line, which the railroad has expressed interest in selling.

Ramps could link those lanes with HOV lanes on I-405 at Totem Lake and Coal Creek, Matsuoka said. Another busway could be built between downtown Bellevue and Overlake south of Highway 520, in an industrial corridor the city of Bellevue hopes to redevelop, he added.

Light rail or monorail across Lake Washington also would displace cars from I-90's reversible center lanes. Monorail is heavier, Matsuoka said, and Sound Transit still must determine whether the I-90 bridge can support it.

Once across the lake, he said, either kind of rail could run north above Bellevue Way before entering a tunnel under downtown Bellevue. Spur rail lines, mostly elevated, could follow I-90 to Issaquah and the same routes as the "busways" to Totem Lake and Overlake, with a possible extension to Redmond.

But it's probably unrealistic to think that Sound Transit's next round will accomplish everything, Matsuoka told the board.

Tentative station picked

Meanwhile, the board yesterday also picked the tentative site for a future Northgate light-rail station.

The preferred Northgate site would be an elevated station spanning Northeast 103rd Street — the street between Northgate Mall and the Northgate Transit Center — just east of First Avenue Northeast.

The site would be just a short walk from the mall and is favored by Seattle city officials , according to a Sound Transit staff report, but the mall's owners have expressed "strong reservations." They fear the station would cost the mall parking and block the visibility of stores from nearby Interstate 5, the report says.

The panel reserved the right to change its mind in January. And construction is years away anyway; Sound Transit lacks money to build light rail north from downtown Seattle to the University District, much less Northgate.

While approving the 103rd site, the board also directed the agency to continue to study another elevated station that would span First Northeast — which runs east of I-5 — between Northeast 100th and 103rd streets.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com