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Link light rail nearing deadline on UW issues

Thursday, March 16, 2000

By GEORGE FOSTER Mail Author
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The clock is running out on negotiations between the University of Washington and Sound Transit over sending light rail trains rumbling 200 feet under the campus.

The Federal Transit Administration wants at least tentative agreement by April 1 before entering into a long-standing funding arrangement with the transit agency.

Of the Link light rail system's $1.92 billion estimated cost (in 1995 dollars), Sound Transit is hoping for more than $700 million in federal aid.

Still unresolved are issues over how to move millions of cubic yards of dirt from tunnel construction out of the U District and the location of the entrance to the underground station.

Talks continued yesterday, with tentative agreement reached on one compensation issue. The transit agency would pay UW for impacts from station construction at Northeast 45th Street on development of a new law school complex next to it, transit executive director Bob White said.

Tunnel construction is due to begin a year from now, with the 21-mile line from SeaTac to the U District to be ready for passengers by 2006.

Today, a UW Board of Regents committee will review a proposed memorandum of understanding from the transit agency. White described it as the result of "working together through some very difficult negotiations."

It also points out differences between the transit agency and UW. Those include:

  • Compensation for land required for entrances to underground stations at Northeast 45th Street and at Pacific Avenue Northeast, both along 15th Avenue Northeast.

  • Additional protection for university laboratories against vibration from tunnel construction and trains. So far, Sound Transit has agreed to put in 2,800 linear feet of padding under its track to reduce vibrations.

    Bridgett Chandler, UW's assistant vice president for regional affairs, stressed the value of the university's research laboratories. Research grants, she said, "bring in over $700 million annually into the regional economy."

  • Whether to build a Pacific Street station entrance where UW plans to expand the architecture school's Gould Hall, or next door on property of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints conference center. A Gould Hall station entrance would cost Sound Transit $2.4 million in added costs, the university says, while the church has resisted use of its land.

  • Building a conveyor system from the Pacific Street vertical shaft for the tunnel to Union Bay for carrying dirt to barges. UW wants the conveyor underground or a shaft dug closer to the water and away from the main campus.

    Chandler said one of the biggest issues is whether the Link line terminates below the relatively quiet corner of Northeast 45th Street and 15th Avenue Northeast.

    The university doesn't want traffic congestion and parking problems associated with a transit terminus. However, White says university officials have overstated the inconvenience.

    However, UW is not alone in its fears. U District business owners have voiced similar concerns.

    "We hope it is not too far off that the extension to Northgate can be completed," said Fred Hart, owner of La Tienda, a shop on University Way Northeast. "That would make the system much more workable for this area."

    Sound Transit officials have tried to allay concerns by saying they, too, want the line to continue to Northgate, possibly by 2008, and are seeking the money for that.

    Meanwhile, Hart says he and others along University Way "are looking to certain negative construction impacts. We're trying to be realistic about it.

    "Hopefully," he added, "it won't be damaging of the area, and when it is completed it will help rejuvenate area.

    P-I reporter George Foster can be reached at 206-448-8341 or georgefoster@seattle-pi.com

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