BELLEVUE , Wash. -- A group of Bellevue homeowners is alleging that Sound Transit has intentionally increased cost and risk estimates of a proposed light rail alignment, to make it look worse. The agency says it’s just not true, but it’s a sign of how much tension there is in a debate over where trains will travel.
Two years after voters approved extending light rail to the eastside, the debate over the light rail path through south Bellevue is far from settled. Sound Transit has chosen a preferred route, which includes coming across Interstate 90, turning north on Bellevue Way and going up 112th Street into downtown.
But homeowners in neighborhoods like Surrey Downs and Enatai have erected signs protesting the route, saying there’s no reason to bring trains by their established neighborhoods. The majority of the Bellevue City Council supports a different route. Light rail would continue along I-90 across the Mercer Slough, then turn north using an abandoned railroad line that follows I-405.
Sound Transit says that route is more expensive.
“This is a high risk business,” says Ric Ilgenfritz, Sound Transit’s Planning Director. “When you are building big projects in sensitive environments, there is risk.”
Rosmann alleges that Sound Transit made a number of decisions intentionally driving up cost estimates, to make the old railroad route look worse. When Sound Transit studied using the abandoned railway, it added the cost of a new walking and bike trail next to the tracks. That trail adds millions of dollars because it involves significant re-grading of the land, triggering the need for new retaining walls.
Rosmann says no one’s going to use the trail, because there are perfectly good trails already through the entire slough.
“It’s a convenient way to make the cost high, it’s that clear,” Rosmann says.
In reality, the trail debate isn’t that clear. Ilgenfritz says Sound Transit’s estimates of cost and risk are accurate and fair. As railroads have sold off their rights-of-way nationwide, the federal government has encouraged converting these corridors into trails. King County’s contract to buy this particular roadway clearly says the county intends to use it as part of a trail system. The principle is that trails can be easily converted back to rail use and railroads could reclaim the space if the demand for freight rail ever comes back.
“We can’t do anything to change that,” Ilgenfritz said. “We have no discretion and we can’t do anything but try to fit our transit line in adjacent to it.”
Rosmann says railroads aren’t coming back, especially after the state, two years ago, demolished the Wilburton Tunnnel. Unless a railroad wants to rebuild an overpass across I-405, the abandoned corridor is no longer connected. Rosmann says it’s highly unlikely freight will return.
“It will be a cold day in hell. It ain’t going to happen,” Rosmann says.
Bellevue City Councilman Kevin Wallace, who was elected promising to support the railway option, agrees a trail is unnecessary.
“These things can be resolved. You can have competing uses of light rail, freight rail and trail that all need to be addressed--that doesn’t mean they can’t be addressed,” Wallace said.
Regardless of whether a trail is needed, Sound Transit says another reason the route along the railroad won’t work is ridership. One of the big advantages of putting light rail on Bellevue Way is that trains can stop at the existing Bellevue Way Park and Ride, already a major hub for transit. Under the railroad route, the trains would stay along I-90, and would be too far away to connect with the Bellevue Way Park and Ride facility.
“We have to let folks get on to the system so they’ll ride it,” says Claudia Balducci, a member of the Sound Transit Board and a Bellevue City Council member who supports the Bellevue Way option.
With four of the seven Bellevue council members opposed to Sound Transit’s preferred route, the council has hired a consultant to study the possibility of building a new Park and Ride lot at the very south end of Bellevue Way, at the intersection of I-90. That way, the route using the railroad corridor would still be able to pick up passengers at Bellevue Way.
The Council unanimously has asked Sound Transit to hold off on a final route choice until that consultant study is back.
We’ll explore these issues and more Sunday, Jan. 16 on KING 5 News Up Front, 9:30 Sunday morning.
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