Sound Transit has begun on its Northgate light rail station, one of three stations set to open in 2021 with the completion of the Northgate Link Extension. Sound Transit Boardmember and Seattle City Councilmember Rob Johnson, and Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff, spoke at the opening event.
“The Northgate Station turns parking into affordable housing for low-income families, and creates a vibrant transit hub that serves people, and businesses large and small,” Johnson said. “This project is evidence of the amazing community-driven results from creative collaboration between many partners – Sound Transit, the City of Seattle, King County and neighborhoods.”
“Within a few years this station will enable many thousands more riders each day to take advantage of fast and reliable travel through some of the most congestion-choked areas of our region,” Rogoff said.
Sound Transit selected Absher Construction Company last August to build a station, guideway and parking garage for the extension. The $174 million contract includes constructing an elevated station at Northgate that will straddle Northeast 103rd Street just east of First Avenue Northeast. Trains traveling in 3.5-mile twin tunnels north to and from the University of Washington Station at Husky Stadium will stop at underground stations in the U District and Roosevelt neighborhoods, exit the tunnels at First Avenue Northeast and Northeast 95th and transition to a 0.8-mile elevated guideway to reach the station.
The work includes building a transit island, located below the south end of the station platform between Northeast 100th and Northeast 103rd Streets, for convenient light rail and bus connections and a parking garage at the northeast corner of Northeast 103rd Street and First Avenue Northeast that will provide 450 stalls for transit users. Ample bicycle parking is also planned at the station, which is also designed for a future mezzanine connection from the City of Seattle’s planned pedestrian and bike bridge across I-5. Once open, the station will also provide convenient access to Northgate Mall for shoppers and mall employees.
Riders using Northgate Station will enjoy seven-minute rides to Husky Stadium, 14-minute rides to downtown and 47-minute rides to Sea-Tac Airport.
The $1.9 billion Northgate Link project extends light rail 4.3 miles north from the University of Washington to a station next to the King County Northgate Transit Center. During construction, Sound Transit will maintain current parking capacity at the park-and-ride lot.
King County and the City of Seattle will invest $20 million in transit-oriented development (TOD), including affordable housing, on land owned by King County Metro Transit at the Northgate Transit Center next to the park-and-ride. The TOD will include 200 units of housing for low-income families, as well as retail, commercial and office development on a four-square- block parcel bounded by Northeast 103rd and Northeast 100th streets.
