Sound Transit’s Light Rail Opens on the Eastside (UPDATED, 5/1)

Images Courtesy of Sound Transit via X (formerly Twitter)

Sound Transit recently celebrated the opening of the first portion of the Link 2 line, a 6.6-mile light rail route between South Bellevue and Redmond Technology stations. This segment of the agency’s East Link Extension project consists of eight new stations, a tunnel in Downtown Bellevue, and convenient connections to local transit and the Eastrail regional trail network. Service is available every 10 minutes, 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

Opening to the public on April 27, 2024, the Bellevue to Redmond extension has “driven transit-oriented development and affordable housing investments.”

In August, the 1 Line will extend into Snohomish County to Lynnwood, and in spring 2025, the 2 Line is expected to add two more stations in Redmond. When complete, the entire 2 Line will stretch more than 14 miles and encompass 10 stations, from Seattle’s International District, across I-90 through Mercer Island, through Downtown Bellevue to Redmond Technology Station.

Infrastructure solutions firm HNTB has led the H-J-H Final Design Partners joint venture in providing final design services on this project since September 2012. In this capacity, HNTB brought together a large multidisciplinary team of around 150 designers, engineers and other professionals from 43 firms to deliver this work. Collaboration, HNTB says, was key to this project’s success, as the team worked closely with the Cities of Bellevue and Redmond, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and Sound Transit.

“We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Sound Transit for successfully leading the East Link Starter Line to completion,” said Kris Agers, HNTB Office Leader for the region and Senior Vice President. “This project is another step toward enhancing connectivity for our growing and vibrant region. As a member of the Downtown Bellevue community, HNTB is excited to celebrate the opening and our successful partnership with Sound Transit.”

“This light rail line is going to change lives,” said King County Councilmember and Sound Transit System Expansion Committee Chair Claudia Balducci. “It will connect people to education, jobs, recreation and each other, helping expand access to opportunity across our region. We wouldn’t be here without our incredible partners, like HNTB. Their expertise and dedication have been integral to making the vision of light rail on the Eastside a reality. For me, this is the culmination of years and years of work by many people and a realization of the promise we made to voters in 2008. For the Eastside, it’s the beginning of an incredible transformation that will benefit the community for decades to come.”

Voters approved the East Link extension in 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 ballot measure. The project broke ground in 2016, and the one-third mile-long Downtown Bellevue Tunnel was completed in 2020.

In August 2023 the Sound Transit Board authorized the opening of the initial segment of the 2 Line on the Eastside while construction to correct quality issues on the I-90 segment continues. Since last February, trains have been running simulated service between South Bellevue and Redmond Technology Station, during which all Link trains run a normal schedule without passengers.

Multiple contractors worked on the segment of the 2 Line opening. Shimmick/Parsons Joint Venture was the contractor for the South Bellevue Segment. The Downtown Bellevue Tunnel was constructed by Guy F. Atkinson Construction, LLC. Stacy and Witbeck/Atkinson, a joint venture, completed the segment between Downtown Bellevue and the Spring District; Max J. Kuney Company was the contractor for the BelRed segment; and the contractor for the Redmond segment was Kiewit-Hoffman East Link Constructors, a joint venture between Kiewit Infrastructure West Co and Hoffman Construction Company of Washington. Mass Electric was the contractor for systems.

“We are about to board light rail on the Eastside for the first time thanks to the years of collaboration and hard work that our community members, project partners, Sound Transit staff, and contractors have dedicated to make this moment possible,” said Sound Transit Interim CEO Goran Sparrman. “Congratulations and thanks to the many hundreds of people who have played such an important role in bringing the vision of a more connected Eastside to life.”

Additionally, HDR performed extensive construction management services for the Bellevue segment of the line and six of the line’s stations, providing the resident engineer and key management staff.

HDR’s construction management team assisted Sound Transit from procurement through completion, including project oversight, constructability reviews, environmental monitoring, scheduling, field inspections, independent cost estimating and more.

“We’ve been working toward this moment for eight years, and it’s great to see trains full of passengers making the most of this new mobility option,” said Transit Construction Manager Justin Garrod, who led HDR’s work on the rail line. “Our team worked hard to build a collaborative spirit that prioritized problem solving and risk management and that helped keep everyone focused on the right things.”

“Our downtown Bellevue campus was designed around the connectivity that mass transit provides, both for the community and the businesses that are growing here,” said David Zapolsky, Senior Vice President of Global Public Policy and General Counsel at Amazon, which provided up to 15,000 preloaded ORCA cards to promote ridership and transit access as part of the opening celebration.

“Not only will this investment provide easier access to downtown Bellevue for our 12,000 Amazon employees in the city, but as we continue to invest in affordable housing with access to nearby public transit through the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, the 2 Line will also begin to open up new opportunities for the broader community,” added Zapolsky.

The full 2 Line is expected to open in 2025. The Downtown Redmond Link Extension is projected to open in spring 2025 with the Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond stations. When completed, the I-90 segment will add the Mercer Island and Judkins Park stations to the 2 Line and connect to the 1 Line at the International District/Chinatown Station in downtown Seattle.

More information is available here.