Light rail on Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue Southeast will be a negative and permanent impact on our neighborhoods. The construction challenges here are immense. These are major arterials to and from downtown Bellevue and will be reduced from four lanes to three reversible lanes for five to seven years.

A swath of 1,300 trees will be removed along the entire Western perimeter of the Mercer Slough. There will be at least a 60-foot clear-cut where vegetation and trees will be permanently removed.

Approximately 260,700 cubic yards of Mercer Slough park land will be removed for construction. If you lined up dump trucks end to end filled with this material, it would stretch for 125 miles. Sound Transit will replace it with compacted backfill and rock, using hydraulic ramming tools to try to create stability for the train in the Mercer Slough peat bog. The noise from these hydraulic ramming tools will be horrendous and also the trucks moving this material all day.

The light rail structure will be elevated from I-90 to a new five-story parking garage, creating light pollution in and view obstruction of the Mercer Slough. Construction and the park and ride lot closure will last five to seven years. Sound Transit has never been on time and never on budget. The Bellevue City Council has exempted Sound Transit from our noise code, despite promises of “exceptional mitigation.”

The City Council should advocate for tunneling, just like Seattle has done. Why were we sold out? I don’t want more of the same bait and switch. Vote no on ST3.

Alan W. Smith

Bellevue