Sound Transit won’t start construction of light rail tracks and stations on Kent’s West Hill for another two years but it is wrapping up planning and design details.
The agency will extend light rail from the Angle Lake Station in SeaTac at South 200th Street to near South 320th Street in Federal Way with stops at Kent/Des Moines along Pacific Highway South near a new South 236th Lane and at South 272nd Street in Kent. The cost of the 7.6-mile Federal Way extension project is about $1.5 billion.
Kent city staff are working with Sound Transit officials with plans for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) about the development agreement to be signed in January by Mayor Suzette Cooke.
“The purpose of that (MOU) is to document the progress we have made so far for the Sound Transit board and to identify how we are working together to meet some of their key policy objectives.,” said Ben Wolters, city economic and community development director, in a Dec. 13 report to the City Council. “They have asked to make sure we are facilitating access to Highline College, which we are certainly doing; enhancing transit oriented development in the Midway area and South 272nd Street; and to consider permitting processes that will provide certainty and predictability for the project.”
With voters approval of ST3 in November, Kent will get two stations, scheduled to open in 2024. Both stations will have parking garages.
The elevated station near Highline College in Des Moines is designed to go on the east side of Pacific Highway South above a new South 236th Lane. The council several years ago approved a high capacity transit code for a new pedestrian bridge over the highway to the college but the council might drop that condition and go with crosswalks and signals instead.
“Thanks to the work we’ve done with Sound Transit, we believe there’s a departure from that requirement that’s warranted thanks to the new 236th street that’s been identified,” Wolters said. “When we looked at the bridge, it didn’t make much sense. You have a slope coming down and a bridge that would have to go a long way with going up and over and back down while using elevators and stairs, so a pedestrian might just take the quickest route across the street rather than navigate that.”
There are also plans for the city and Sound Transit to work with the state Department of Transportation to reduce the speed along Pacific Highway South in that section from 45 mph to 40 mph.
City of Kent code requires the light rail stations to include restrooms for convenience of the riders, but Wolters said the transit agency has asked the city to reconsider that stand.
“They raise some valid concerns which is security, vandalism and maintenance issues with public restrooms and how we can mitigate those issues and who is going to take on the cost of maintenance and operations,” Wolters said. “We are going to have to address that relative to our code versus the development agreement.”
Other issues and costs to be determined with the Pacific Highway station include whether to build a 30th Street overpass over Kent Des Moines Road; a South 240th Street overpass over Interstate 5; possible improvements to the South 259th Street underpass to provide better access to light rail stations; and whether the stations should have retail space on the first floor.
Sound Transit plans to extend light rail from Angle Lake in SeaTac along the west side of Interstate 5 to Kent, where the line will angle west toward Pacific Highway South, then go back to along I-5 to get to Federal Way.
City and Sound Transit staff have yet to determine whether the South 272nd Street station near I-5 will be elevated or in a trench.
The agency has notified property owners along the route whether their residential or commercial buildings will need to be purchased by Sound Transit and removed for the project.
Sound Transit also has a set process for naming stations. City officials want the Pacific Highway South station to be called Kent/Des Moines while Highline College staff and students prefer Highline College.
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