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Progress Update on the 520 Project
The construction effort on 520 is about to move to the West side, after a long, long slog of a project. The last pontoons will be on the lake by November (if the creek don’t rise) and the details of the Eastside project will get finalized. The communication below is from Julie Meredith, the Program…
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Visiting Bertha (Many Photos)
One of the perks of the State Rep gig is that I get some cool tours. I’ve been inside pontoons on the 520 bridge, an aircraft carrier, Sound Transit tunnel construction, and last week the orifice the Bertha is creating. I took some photos that illustrate some aspects of the visit, though it’s hard to…
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520 Progress – New Status Report from Chief Engineer
The SR 520 program is making lots of progress this summer – with 46 pontoons now on Lake Washington and a new Eastside transit stop open for transit riders! Today we also celebrated a new construction milestone on the floating bridge—installation of the first transition span. More details below. Transition span installation on June 27…
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Major 520 Work in June
The Eastside portion of the 520 project will reach a major milestone this summer – it’ll be mostly done by August/September. There will be punchlist work for some of the fall, but major disruptions should end. I know it’s been a bear of a project. Over the next few weeks you’ll see some major changes…
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Follow-up from Telephone Town Hall – Foster Care and 520 Bridge Schedule
Thanks for the 4000-5000 folks who listened to a segment of our telephone town hall last week. There were a lot of questions asked. If you have an extra hour and want to listen to the recording of the questions I answered here it is. I said I’d answer questions left on voicemail at the…
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Sound Transit Eastlink Route Animation
I attended a Bellevue Downtown Association meeting last week where the following animation was presented, along with a great talk on what the downtown Bellevue light rail staion will look like. The animation takes about 12 minutes, but really allows you to see where the train will go and how it will integrate into both…
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Transportation
I made some remarks at the Bellevue Rotary yesterday that seem to have been misinterpreted by some people, so I’m clarifying: Passing a transportation package this session is incredibly important for the Puget Sound region. I support a well-designed package. Starting in January King County Metro will start reducing service to make up for an…
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Boeing, Special Sessions, Tax Policy, and Transportation
I’m in Olympia today at the behest of Governor Inslee. He called us in to, in his words: “I am asking lawmakers to pass a package of legislation that will guarantee that the Boeing 777X and its carbon fiber wing are built in Washington state,” Inslee said at a press conference today where he was…
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I-90 tolling proposal public input opportunity
I received the following memo from WSDOT this week. We are entering the phase of finalizing the funding plan for the Western landing for 520. One of the options is tolling I-90 to pay for the remaining $1.4 billion in work to be done. We currently have enough money in the budget to connect the…
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Get ready for westbound SR 520 closures on Thursday nights
Useful info from WSDOT. Construction closures are aggravating, but getting the bridge done more quickly saves money and gets the whole project done faster. Construction of the new West Connection Bridge is in full swing so please plan ahead for weekly closures of westbound SR 520. Crews will close all westbound lanes from 92nd Avenue…