Final environmental study released for extending light rail to Lynnwood

Sound Transit Board to select final alignment in late April

Sound Transit and the Federal Transit Administration have issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the voter-approved Lynnwood Link light rail extension from Northgate to Lynnwood.

The FEIS addresses comments from the 2013 Draft Environmental Impact Statement and provides a detailed look at the project benefits, potential impacts and mitigation measures as the Sound Transit Board considers the route and station locations to be built for the 8.5-mile line.

The Board is scheduled to select the route at its April 23 meeting.

Lynnwood Link is estimated to carry 63,000-74,000 riders each weekday by 2035 through one of the most congested travel corridors in the region and will offer a 28 minute trip between Lynnwood and downtown Seattle regardless of traffic conditions.

It is scheduled to begin construction in 2018 and open in 2023, bringing light rail to Snohomish County for the first time. Lynnwood Link will connect to the light rail segment currently under construction between Husky Stadium and Northgate, scheduled to open in 2021.

The Sound Transit Board identified a preferred alignment along the I-5 corridor in late 2013 with four stations in the north Seattle, Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood areas. Cost estimates range from $1.5 to $1.7 billion.

Lynnwood Link is the northernmost of the more than 30 miles of Sound Transit 2 light rail extensions approved by voters in 2008. By 2023, Sound Transit is also scheduled to open an eastward extension to Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond's Overlake area, and a southward extension to the Kent/DesMoines area. By 2030, Link is expected to carry more than 80 million riders a year.

The Lynnwood Link FEIS is available at local public libraries and online at: www.soundtransit.org/Lynnwoodextension.

Publication of the FEIS caps more than five years of environmental studies since voters approved Lynnwood Link in 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 system expansion. The studies looked at several route combinations with potential station locations between Northgate and Lynnwood. During that time Sound Transit participated in more than 400 events at public meetings, community fairs and festivals, council briefings and information sessions with property owners as it planned for the new line.