ASH WAY PARK-AND-RIDE GROUNDBREAKING TO SYMBOLIZE THE FIRST REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY INVESTMENT

When the first shovel of dirt is turned at the groundbreaking for the new Ash Way park-and-ride lot in Lynnwood, it will symbolize the first investment of voter-approved tax revenues by the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority - Sound Transit - in improving regional transportation. The Ash Way facility will be the first of almost one hundred transit improvement projects planned as part of Sound Move - the Ten-Year Regional Transit System Plan for which local funding was approved by the region's voters in November 1996.

Ash Way Park-and-Ride Groundbreaking
9:30 a.m., Thursday, September 4
16101 Ash Way (164th S.W. just west of I-5)
Lynnwood, WA

The $4.3 million project is a partnership between Community Transit, the lead agency on the project, the state Department of Transportation, and the RTA. Among those participating in the ceremony will be Snohomish Co. Executive Bob Drewel, chair of the RTA Board; Joyce Olson, executive director of Community Transit; and Edmonds City Council member Dave Earling who serves on the boards of both Community Transit and the RTA. The RTA Board's decision to make an early investment in the Ash Way project as one of its "first moves" is allowing construction of the much-needed facility to get underway this year. Four existing park-and-ride lots serving southwest Snohomish County are severely overcrowded. The new 1,000-stall Ash Way facility will help ease the strain when it opens in the fall of 1998.