(Sound Transit video of today’s entire committee meeting. WS-Ballard briefing/discussion starts at 1 hour, 50 minutes in)

By Tracy Record

West Seattle Blog editor

Today brought the last stop for West Seattle to Ballard light-rail before a key Sound Transit Board vote to decide which routing/station locations will go into environmental studies.

But the board’s System Expansion Committee declined to recommend a complete “preferred alternative” routing/station-location plan, after hearing opposing opinions on whether to do so at all.

Before the committee’s vote late today – near the end of a 4-hour meeting with other major agenda items – it heard those opinions from two ST board members who are not committee members. Phoning in from an overseas trip, King County Councilmember Joe McDermott (a West Seattle resident) advocated for not identifying a preferred alternative, saying there’s just not enough information. Meantime, committee chair King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci read email from board member Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers insisting that a preferred alternative must be identified and that environmental studies should not include options discarded in the first two levels of advisory-group review – such as the so-called “purple line,” a two-tunnel West Seattle plan that the Stakeholder Advisory Group wanted to keep but the Elected Leadership Group did not. ST staff’s very preliminary estimates suggested it could require more than $1 billion “third-party funding,” but various meetings have included some suggestions that panicking over price tags should wait until more design/engineering work has been done.

Before we get into what preceded that, here’s what the committee gave its blessing to – the West Seattle language from the motion that members approved:

West Seattle (Avalon/Junction)

Preferred alternative (To be determined)

Potential preferred alternative (To be determined)

Other DEIS alternative (To be determined) West Seattle (Delridge)

Preferred alternative

N of Genesee station – Elevated guideway runs south adjacent to Delridge Way SW to an elevated Delridge station on a diagonal between Delridge Way SW and 26th Avenue SW north of SW Genesee Street. Continues west on an elevated guideway along SW Genesee Street. Additionally, the Board directs staff to explore refining the Delridge station location, prioritizing a further south location and looking for opportunities to minimize potential residential impacts, create a high quality transfer environment, optimize TOD potential and reduce costs. Other DEIS alternatives

S of Andover station – Elevated guideway follows Delridge Way SW south to an elevated Delridge station south of SW Andover Street. Continues south along Delridge Way SW and then runs west along SW Genesee Street. The Board directs staff to conduct an initial assessment of the following alternatives, which were suggested during the scoping period, to establish whether further detailed study in the Draft EIS is appropriate: Yancy/Andover alignment – An alignment along the Yancy/Andover corridor with a Delridge Station serving Youngstown. Pigeon Point Tunnel – A refinement of the Pigeon Ridge Tunnel alignment that was previously evaluated in Level 1 and Level 2 screening. This alignment would include a refined Duwamish crossing location that includes a tunnel through Pigeon Point with a further south Delridge station location. The assessment and recommendation for further study shall be brought back to the Sound Transit Board for review and potential action. Duwamish Crossing

Preferred alternative

South crossing – Elevated guideway crosses over the Spokane Street Viaduct, curves west and parallels the West Seattle Bridge on the south side. Crosses over the Duwamish Waterway on a high-level fixed bridge on the south side of the existing bridge, then rounds Pigeon Point and heads south along Delridge Way SW.

Other DEIS alternatives

North crossing – Elevated guideway curves west and parallels the existing West Seattle Bridge on the north side. Spans the Duwamish Waterway on a high-level, fixed bridge on the north side of the existing bridge, then crosses over the West Seattle bridge ramp, passes over the Nucor Steel property and runs south along Delridge Way SW. The Board directs staff to conduct an initial assessment of the following alternative, which was suggested during the scoping period, to establish whether further detailed study in the Draft EIS is appropriate:

Pigeon Point Tunnel – A refinement of the Pigeon Ridge Tunnel alignment that was previously evaluated in Level 1 and Level 2 screening. This alignment would include a refined Duwamish crossing location that includes a tunnel through Pigeon Point with a further south Delridge station location.

The assessment and recommendation for further study shall be brought back to the Sound Transit Board for review and potential action.

Here’s the full motion (PDF), including other sections of the West Seattle to Ballard extension. Now, what preceded it:

The vote was preceded by an exhaustive briefing from ST staff – here’s the slide deck (and here in PDF):

After the presentation, points of discussion included a question about the cost difference between cut-and-cover tunneling and bored tunneling (the latter is what’s most applicable to West Seattle possibilities, although ST’s Cathal Ridge alluded to the possibility of exploring other “construction techniques”).

Balducci read the motion and noted that it is important to identify a preferred alternative for each segment “if at all possible” because of the “front-loaded” process. She said she recommended that the committee NOT make recommendations in the most contentious segments because, among other reasons, no one on the committee was on the Elected Leadership Group. “It would be better to have the discussion … for those areas” at the full Board. (That’s why the motion text, shown above, includes “to be determined” for part of West Seattle.

That’s when McDermott joined by phone. He noted that both advisory groups struggled with recommendations given that so little design/engineering work has been done so far. “After studying over a year, I believe it’s premature for the board to decide on one preferred alternative .. we need more information before we can (decide) what that is.” So he asked that no “preferred” recommendation be made at least in West Seattle, Ballard, and Chinatown-ID.

He also addressed the “third-party funding” issue “I’ve heard nothing but willingness from partners [such as the city and port] to have that conversation once we have [cost] information … at this stage we don’t have enough information to have a detailed or meaningful conversation.” McDermott also made it clear he knows additional funding wouldn’t come from other ST sub-areas. Overall, “we really need to get it right.”

It then was noted that Somers expressed some reservations about the recommendations made last month by the ELG (of which he was a member). Balducci read his email:

The proposed motion No. M2019-51 must: 1. Identify all elements put forward by the SAG that were identified as consistent in cost with the voter approved representative alignment, including elevated and surface alternatives in West Seattle and Ballard. 2. Identify all elements and configurations which, based on current cost estimates, would require third party funding. 3. Call for identification and analysis of third party funding options for elements and configurations not consistent with the voter approved representative alignment. 4. Identify potential impacts to ST3 delivery schedule by not identifying a preferred alternative at this time, as agreed to in the Partnering Agreement with the City of Seattle. 5. The DEIS must carry forward and assess and refine all cost estimates and analyze impacts to voter approved ST3 package. 6. DEIS should not assess alternatives eliminated in Level 1 or 2 screening. If these elements are not included, I must oppose the motion and urge my fellow board members to oppose the motion.

Balducci said she too was concerned about not advancing some kind of “preferred alternative” – putting that label on something right now, she contended, doesn’t mean that’s the final decision, it just helps meet deliverables.

Committee member University Place Mayor Kent Keel questioned why the board would have gone to the trouble of setting up a new process to try to accelerate the West Seattle to Ballard line – picking a preferred alternative before environmental studies – and then ignore it.

The final decision is up to the full board – which unlike the System Expansion Committee has Seattle representation (Mayor Jenny Durkan and newly appointed City Councilmember Debora Juarez, as well as McDermott and West Seattle-residing King County Executive Dow Constantine).

This was the 9th of 10 action items on a very busy agenda. At the start of the meeting, public commenters (beginning 16 minutes into the meeting vide above) included 3 from West Seattle. Dennis Noland from the Youngstown area, who wants the “Andover/Yancy/Avalon” and “Pigeon Ridge Tunnel” routes to be studied; they would go through fewer private properties. “This is a neighborhood that should be served by light rail, not decimated by light rail.” Also, Aimee Riordan from the East Alaska Junction Neighborhood Coalition spoke, voicing the group’s opposition to “the orange line,” now described as “the diagonal.” She made it clear that the group supports light rail but is concerned that this alignment would take out “the heart of The Junction” – more than 100 homes, plus the potential for a later southward extension to take out more. She added that elevated light rail in The Junction “is the wrong choice.” And one other West Seattleite spoke, first to urge the committee to evaluate routing options more scientifically than subjectively, and then to also ask that the “orange” option be “excluded” from further consideration.

Other speakers addressed other items – primarily the controversy over a south King County maintenance facility possibly taking out the relatively new Dick’s Drive-In location (ultimately rejected) – aside from a SODO property owner advocating for an elevated option through that area as part of the West Seattle/Ballard extension.

The May 23rd meeting (1:30 pm at ST’s boardroom, 401 S. Jackson) also will include public comment.