December 10, 2009
Part of Burke Gilman to be closed for 18 days beginning Dec. 14
Starting Monday a part of the Burke Gilman Trail across from Hec Edmondson Pavilion will be closed, signaling the start of construction of the long-awaited Sound Transit light-rail station.
The closure, which will last 18 days, until Jan. 3, is the beginning of 6 1/2 years of construction activities near Husky Stadium to build a Sound Transit light rail station and install a 3.1 mile underground tunnel connecting the UW to Capitol Hill. When the station and tunnel open in 2016, Sound Transit projects that 27,000 riders will pass through the UW station each weekday.
About a tenth of a mile of the Burke Gilman Trail between Rainier Vista and Snohomish Lane will be closed, with users re-routed onto Mason Road behind Wilcox Hall.
During the closure, a contractor will install the infrastructure for electrical “duct banks,” that is, a pathway for conduits under the trail for wiring to provide electricity to the station.
Then, starting in January, the Sound Transit contractor will begin assembling a construction site on a portion of the Husky Stadium parking lot, starting with four acres on the south side of lot E-11 that are on Montlake Boulevard close to the bridge. Plywood walls will be erected, with those facing Montlake being 8 feet high and those on the south end being up to 22 feet. Mesh-covered chain link fences will secure the site on the other sides. Eventually the construction site will expand to cover six acres of the parking lot. Included in the site will be the area where the station will be built.
More than 600 parking spots in E-11 and E-12 are being eliminated because of the projects and construction site and those drivers have been assigned to new parking areas. Only those from the UW campus who volunteered to change parking areas were moved, said Elena Fox, with communications and marketing for Transportation Services.
For more information about noise mitigation and truck traffic during these first phases click here. Or you can download the presentation from the Dec. 2 construction kick-off open house here.
The 24 hour construction hotline is 888-298-2395. To receive monthly electronic newsletters from Sound Transit, click here.
