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On Friday, January 11, I was invited to a tour of the University of Washington Station (UW Station). While the station is still under construction, it is over the halfway mark, and both on-time and under-budget.

WHY tour the UW Station, which will be two stops away from Ravenna’s closest station, in Roosevelt? Turns out, the designs for underground portions of both stations are similar (though the UW Station is at a larger scale):

Click the picture above for a larger version of the graphic.

Prior to heading down into the station, everyone on the tour had to don the collection of safety gear pictured above.

Start of the tour view, looking north across the top of the UW Station. Husky Stadium is on the right.

Out of the elevator, down on the platform level. We walked north along the northbound side of the platform to the presentation area.

The group standing on the platform at the base of the north-facing escalator (not yet installed; same with all escalators), listening to King County Councilmember and Sound Transit Board Member Larry Phillips talk about the station.

Platform level again, taken to the right of the previous picture, looking down the southbound side.

And the other side, on the northbound trains side.

You can currently find a little sky from nine stories down on the train platform.

Q13 drops the mic sets the mic down carefully.

Gaggle of Sound Transit folks, plus Seattle Transit Blog’s Bruce Nourish at the far right.

Cienna Madrid of The Stranger takes notes while Ellen Banner, photojournalist for the Seattle Times, takes some shots.

Media getting more info on the station construction progress from University Link Executive Project Director Joe Gildner.

YOU ARE HERE.

Next stop, the area above the platform level, where the first set of escalators meet. This shot is taken from the south end of the station, looking back north towards the south-facing platform escalator (middle) and the two escalators which will carry people up and down from ground level.

Scaffolding was removed from much of the station, the exception being the southernmost portion. Bit of a Steampunk Mines of Moria vibe, with metal columns extending in every direction.

Another view of the scaffolding.

Past all the scaffolding, at the southern end of the station, we reached an overlook of the tunnels leading to and from the Capitol Hill Station. Northbound is on the left, southbound is on the right.



Close-up of the southbound/Capitol Hill Station tunnel entrance.

Close-up of the northbound tunnel exit.



And my favorite picture of the set.

Notice the pinkish-red cross in the center of the wall. Bruce Gray,Sound Transit Media Relations, told me that that cross is the spot where a tunnel boring machine, starting from the Roosevelt Station construction site, will enter the University of Washington Station (northbound side), connecting the Northgate Link to the University Link.

The cement block partial wall that you can see on the left side of the photo will continue over and meet up with a similar bit of wall on the other side. This wall will be in place as the UW Station

Climbing back out into the daylight.

For more pictures and information from this tour, please visit:

Many thanks to Sound Transit’s Bruce Gray for the invite.