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As a project stakeholder, you’ve heard a lot about the Sound Transit Board’s ongoing work to advance our voter-approved projects in a challenging fiscal environment.
In early 2020, the Board launched a process called realignment to review options for addressing the significant affordability gap affecting our future transit expansion projects not yet under construction. Most recently forecasted at $6.5 billion, this gap means that completing many of these projects on their original schedules won’t be affordable.
On Thursday, Aug. 5, the Board adopted a new flexible framework to support moving forward with projects as rapidly as possible. Learn more about the Board’s action in our Platform blog post.
Updated North Sammamish Park and Ride project timeline
The Board’s adopted plan identifies 2045 as the date Sound Transit will open the North Sammamish Park and Ride, based on current revenue projections, cost estimates and utilization estimates. This change coincides with the opening of the South Kirkland to Issaquah Link light rail extension.
We’ll track fiscal challenges very closely as we work with partner jurisdictions and stakeholders to advance this project. The project’s ultimate timeline will come into greater focus as we advance the environmental review process and project design, including work to reduce or curtail costs to the greatest extent possible while still delivering an outstanding project.
Our path forward will be shaped by determined efforts to secure expanded funding. Close collaboration with partners will be required to deliver projects as rapidly as possible.
As design work advances, we’ll continually refine cost estimates for this and other projects in planning, drawing on recommendations from an independent reviewer. Sound Transit’s finance department, with the guidance of outside economists, will regularly update revenue and inflation projections, with hopes that recent improvements to economic and revenue forecasts continue.
Learn more about the realignment process and increased construction cost estimates at soundtransit.org/realignment.
Next steps
Upcoming work to advance the North Sammamish Park and Ride project will include:
- Engaging project stakeholders on timeline changes.
- Collaborating with the City of Sammamish on transit expansions as we move closer to opening the Downtown Redmond Link Extension project.
We hope you’ll continue to participate in our work to move this important project forward.
Questions? Please feel free to reach out to Kurt Workman at kurt.workman@soundtransit.org or 206-370-5664.
Thank you,
Lucien Bruno
Project Manager
Planning, Environment, and Project Development
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