About 76 parking stalls on the corner of East James Street and Railroad Avenue North at Kent Station will permanently close for work on a second Sound Transit parking garage for Sounder train commuters.
Sound Transit’s contractors will close the stalls on Thursday, Aug. 1, according to Sound Transit. The paratransit parking lot on Railroad Avenue North also will close.
“These closures are for the Kent Station parking and access improvement project,” according to Sound Transit. “We plan to make the area a bus layover and pick-up/drop-off area. The agency expects to complete the project by 2027.”
The agency recommends passengers make alternative parking plans until the new Kent Station garage opens. Parking is available at the lot on the corner of East James Street and First Avenue North or the existing Kent Station parking garage.
The new garage will have 415 spaces. The Sound Transit Board in October awarded a contract with Puyallup-based Absher Construction worth $62.5 million to build a new structured parking facility, additional surface parking as well as pedestrian and bicycle improvements.
The board also approved a $9 million agreement with King County Metro for a new bus layover facility, zero emissions bus charging infrastructure and other support facilities for transit operations and bus operators.
The garage will be built along Railroad Avenue North, just south of West James Street, including property that housed a cold storage warehouse.
Voters approved funding in 2008 with an expected opening of the garage in 2015. But the Great Recession in 2010, the pandemic in 2020 and other funding issues have continually delayed the project. Sound Transit opened a garage in 2001 at 301 Railroad Ave. N., just north of West Smith Street, for train commuters.
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