Sound Transit hits ‘exciting’ milestone as it wraps up work on Northgate light rail stations
Feb 6, 2021, 7:38 AM | Updated: Feb 8, 2021, 6:49 am
Sound Transit announced an important milestone this last week, having “substantially” finished construction on all three Northgate Link light rail stations.
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Construction on the Roosevelt light rail station was finished early in 2020, followed by the U-District station over the summer. The elevated Northgate station was the final piece of the puzzle, wrapping up over the last week.
“This achievement is remarkable given the construction challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff said in a news release. “Thanks to the commitment and professionalism of our construction team, our contractors, and their skilled and dedicated workforce, we remain on budget and on schedule to open this extension in September.”
Sound Transit has been running test trains on elevated tracks in Northgate since January, a process that’s expected to run for several more months. When it opens, the 4.3-mile route will be able to take passengers from Northgate to downtown Seattle in 14 minutes. The route is expected to open to the public toward the latter part of 2021.
City leaders tout the fact that the extension will provide greater access to North Seattle College students, as well as to the Seattle Kraken headquarters and practice facility under construction in Northgate.
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“The Northgate extension will not only get folks downtown quickly,” Seattle City Councilmember Debora Juarez said. “It will also provide access to our reenergized Northgate area with the Kraken headquarters and three ice rinks, and give thousands of students reliable transit to attend class at North Seattle College.”
Service to Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Overlake is expected to open in 2023, followed by extensions in Mountlake Terrace, Shoreline, Lynnwood, Kent, Federal Way, and downtown Redmond in 2024.
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