Sound Transit’s recent East Link presentation to Bellevue City Council indicated the Washington State Department of Transportation had not approved their I-90 bridge design.

However, Sound Transit reported their bridge design engineer “saw no fatal flaws whatsoever in putting light rail on a floating bridge.”

Assuming the light rail/floating bridge compatibility issues are resolved still leaves East Link with “serious” if not “fatal flaws” — the first of which will be evident next year when Sound Transit closes the I-90 bridge center roadway to begin installing light rail.

The fourth lanes they’re currently adding to the bridge’s outer roadway will not have the capacity to make up for the loss of the two center roadway lanes.

The second “flaw” will be the lack of capacity when East Link begins operation in 2023. Sound Transit recently conceded East Link operation will consist of one four-car train every eight minutes, assuming an average of 150 riders in each of the four-car trains gives 4,500 rate per hour, less than half current peak transit capacity.

Thus the $3.6 billion spent on East Link will not only disrupt cross-lake commuters, those who live or commute along the route, and downtown Bellevue, it will inevitably lead to gridlock on the outer bridge roadway.

Sounds pretty “serious” to me.

Bill Hirt

Bellevue