Sound Transit has released its 90-percent design for the south Bellevue light rail station, complete with artistic additions reflective of the neighboring Mercer Slough Nature Park and an updated traffic plan for Bellevue Way Southeast.

The proposed 5-year closure of the South Bellevue Park and Ride to construct the East Link light rail station continued to drum up questions from residents during the Nov. 6 open house at Enatai Elementary, particularly where King County Metro will divert its ridership and if more can be done to shore up road closures.

Puget Sound Energy will require up to 15 weekend closures of one northbound lane on Bellevue Way Southeast to underground utilities starting in mid-2015. The city will also take more than a year to manage its utility work there, but will not be limited to working only weekends.

During East Link construction to follow, Sound Transit plans to keep two lanes of Bellevue Way open to peak traffic, which will be accomplished using a third, reversible lane to address changes in usage heading north or south. This construction is estimated to last 36-48 months. A southbound high-occupancy vehicle lane is also being added to Bellevue Way Southeast ahead of East Link going online in 2023.

Sound Transit engineer Paul Cornish said Metro is working on bus route revisions ahead of the park-and-ride’s closure while Sound Transit looks at alternate parking options, such as leasing space from the private sector or possibly moving parking to Mercer Island.

Utilities work on 112th Avenue Southeast is also expected to reduce traffic to one lane in each direction for about 18 months.

Sound Transit’s 5-year timeline to construct the south Bellevue light rail station and adjacent 1,500-stall parking garage was scaled back from the seven years originally projected for completion. Excavation work is planned to start in 2016. About 4,500 daily boardings are estimated to take place there by 2030.

The 5-story parking garage will consist of two levels below grade, the third story at street level and accessible through the park-and-ride’s current entrance. A south entrance will access the garage at the second floor, said John Walser, a senior architect with Sound Transit.

Commuters entering the station will see a bannered ceiling element in fall colors, the main sidewalks circulating the station patterned to resemble the planks used for Mercer Slough boardwalks, Walser said.

Seattle artists Katy Stone and Vicki Scuri were commissioned to turn the light rail station’s gray preliminary designs into a colorful homage to the surrounding nature park, spending months touring the slough for inspiration, said Barbara Luecke, manager for Sound Transit’s art program, STart.

Stone incorporated cattail formations along the garage’s facade, which will be visible from the station platform, and Scuri designed hexagonally patterned leaf screens that will wrap around guideway support columns. A nature-based pattern will also run along the acoustic panels of the guideway.

As for accessing the slough itself during construction, Walser said a temporary parking lot will be sited south of the park-and-ride.

“That really will be the only access point during construction,” he said.