The Bellevue City Council’s preferred south Bellevue East Link light-rail alignment is a “feasible alternative” to Sound Transit’s plan, but would add more costs to increase ridership, an interim report from an independent consultant found.
The report, issued by Arup North America said a new park-and-ride station near the Bellevue Way Interstate 90 interchange would help drive ridership closer to Sound Transit’s (B2M) option of sending the train up 112th Avenue and Bellevue Way into downtown. But, the new station on the way out to the east side of the Mercer Slough, where the council’s preferred B7 alignment would run, creates additional environmental impacts and drives up the cost to $894 million, from $883 million in the previous B7 to downtown tunnel alignment. According to figures from the report, ridership originating from the B segment, the major point of contention, would triple with the installation of a new station to 4,500 boardings.
Council Member Kevin Wallace, one of the primary backers of the study, called it “bittersweet.” He was enthused by the fact the new station created higher ridership projections, but was disappointed in the difficulty of getting downtown using Northeast Second Street. The B7 revised route would require taking part of the Red Lion and Sheraton sites.
The council will discuss the study Monday. The body opted to spend $670,000 on the report last October by a 4-3 vote. Council members in favor of the study sought to achieve an “apples-to-apples” comparison with Sound Transit’s option to see if costs could be reduced and ridership increased with certain tweaks. The consultant used Sound Transit’s modeling system to facilitate the comparison. The majority of the comparison, however, came between the new route an older version of the B7 route.
The interim report represents the first major deliverable piece of analysis in the project, and one of the “tipping points” where the council can decide whether or not to proceed with the plan. The full report is below.
Wallace hopes that this document will be enough evidence to persuade Sound Transit to rethink the route through South Bellevue.
“My hope would be that this is enough of a conversation piece that we can sit down Sound Transit and find a cooperative path.”
Summary of the two B7 routes (from city of Bellevue)
B7-Revised alternative (studied by Arup): Estimated cost, $894 million; projected 2030 daily ridership, 50,500 (14,500 boardings in Bellevue); number of housing units displaced, 12; unmitigated (mitigated) noise receptors such as homes and businesses, 237 (0); number of employees displaced from businesses, 215; full or partial property acquisitions, 35; affected acres of wetlands/wetland buffers, 1.8/0.8 acres; park lands impacted before mitigation, 1.1 acres.
B7/C9T alternative (studied by Sound Transit in draft environmental impact statement): Estimated cost, $883.8 million; projected 2030 daily ridership, 49,000 (12,500 boardings in Bellevue); number of housing units displaced, 0; unmitigated (mitigated) noise receptors, 182 (0); number of employees displaced from businesses, 268; full or partial property acquisitions, 34; affected wetlands/wetland buffers, 2.1/1.0 acres; park lands impacted before mitigation, 1.3 acres.
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