When you consider the Ballard extension of Sound Transit’s light rail project isn’t scheduled to open until 2035, you may feel compelled to calculate your age just over 17 years from now. What could possibly take a small eternity to build?
This week Sound Transit is discussing its partnership agreement with the city for both the Ballard and West Seattle extensions, and it sheds some light on the complexity of the Ballard extension in particular, which is dramatically larger in scope and scale than the West Seattle project.
For starters, the Ballard project will involve building a movable rail bridge across Salmon Bay, next to the Ballard Bridge, that would open for boat traffic. In the project planning deck, Sound Transit explains the bridge would need to be approved by the Coast Guard, and it “could require acquiring property from the Fisherman’s Terminal and impact buildings, docks, vessels, and equipment associated with maritime businesses.”
This alone is a big project with a lot of variables. Just remember how long the “Missing Link” project is taking — and that’s for a cycling and running path.
The Ballard run is also dependent on a new tunnel from the International District to South Lake Union, and then another new tunnel from South Lake to Uptown (Lower Queen Anne) with tunnel stations at South Lake and Seattle Center. Then the extension becomes elevated, running down Elliott and 15th Ave. to elevated stations in Smith Cove (near the Magnolia cruise ship port) and Interbay (at Dravus) before it heads over the new bridge into Ballard.
That’s a total of 7.1 miles. In many ways, the Ballard “extension” is more like a new Seattle main line when you consider the full route from the south end of downtown:
Sound Transit estimates it will take 15 minutes to ride from Ballard to Westlake — presumably when the bridge isn’t up — and 47,000 to 57,000 people will travel back and forth from Ballard to South Lake every weekday. Include the new downtown tunnel to the mix, and the estimate adds 110,000–136,000 weekday riders.
Under the “risks and issues” section of the planning deck, Sound Transit lists three big ones for the Ballard extension: the movable bridge, the new tunnels and “displacing vehicle travel lanes.”
Keep in mind the Ballard project is only in its initial planning phases. Sound Transit say it will begin holding public meetings early next year to start collecting community feedback, and it’s targeting “early 2022” for a final environmental impact statement and 2026 to finalize the design. Construction would begin in 2027 and be completed in 2035. In the meantime, the smaller-scale West Seattle extension is scheduled to open 5 years earlier.