Light rail guideway construction underway in BelRed

Girders being set near the future Bel-Red/130th station will support track transition from elevated to street level 

Sound Transit today briefed media on East Link light rail guideway construction that has begun in the BelRed area of Bellevue. 

Crews are setting girders that will support light rail tracks near the future Bel-Red/130th station, located between 130th and 132nd Avenues NE at NE Spring Boulevard. When complete, this segment of the alignment will transition from the elevated section of track beginning in downtown Bellevue and spanning I-405, to the street-level section beginning at the Bel-Red/130th station.

After the girders are set, contractor crews will begin work constructing a bridge deck for the future rail line from 124th Avenue NE to 130th Avenue NE. This bridge will connect the Spring District with the BelRed neighborhood at the station at 130th Avenue NE. 

The future Bel-Red/130th station will include a park-and-ride facility adjacent to the station to accommodate up to 300 vehicles for transit use as part of the City of Bellevue’s transit oriented development (TOD) project north of the station, as well as bicycle parking and lockers. When East Link opens in 2023, passengers will be able to travel from this station to the International District/Chinatown station in about 24 minutes. 

A time-lapse video of the girder-setting can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/262406264.

East Link will extend light rail 14 miles from downtown Seattle to downtown Bellevue and the Overlake area of Redmond via Interstate 90, with 10 stations. All segments of the East Link extension are currently under construction, and the entire line will be operational in 2023. The following year Sound Transit will open a 3.7-mile extension further east to new stations in Southeast Redmond and downtown Redmond under funding approved in November 2016.

The Northgate Link light rail extension that is currently under construction will reach Seattle’s University District, Roosevelt and Northgate areas in 2021. Additional Link extensions that are nearing construction will reach north to Lynnwood and south to Federal Way in 2024. Later extensions to form a 116-mile regional system will reach Everett, Tacoma, West Seattle, Ballard, South Kirkland and Issaquah. By 2040 Sound Transit projects Link trains will carry between 480,000 to 590,000 riders each weekday.

For more information on the Bel-Red/130th station see: 
/Projects-and-Plans/East-Link-Extension/Stations/Bel-Red-130th-Station.