Capitol Hill Station’s shell now rises above the Broadway construction walls. Time to say goodbye to the crane. (Image: CHS)
Construction signs warned the Hill to be ready for a long haul back in December 2009 (Image: CHS)
A part of the neighborhood skyline for nearly 1,300 days is slated to wave its 250-foot arm goodbye to Capitol Hill this month. The giant crane purchased by Sound Transit contractors that has helped build Capitol Hill Station and the U-Link light rail tunnels beneath Capitol Hill will be taken down, disassembled, and transported north to help build a new station in Roosevelt.
Sound Transit says it will require approximately 20 trucks to cart the giant crane. More information about the crane’s August removal will be announced soon. The Krøll 1800 (Capitol Hill’s is the metric model) was set up with its enormous 250-foot jib about 100 feet off the ground. The model can be as tall as 200 feet. It can lift more than 30,000 pounds at full extension and more than 130,000 when operating at a shorter radius, according to the manufacturer.
(Image: CHS)
In late January 2011, the crane arrived above Broadway with the dorky fanfare typical of CHS. Yes, we ran a photo essay of the new Capitol Hill landmark. While its planned removal this month will leave a strange hole on the horizon for some, there are plenty more giant cranes at work above the Hill right now to help you keep your bearings.
The construction surrounding the Capitol Hill Station project has been notable for staying both on schedule and budget. The pedestrian concourse project being dug beneath Broadway at Denny, however, hasn’t gone as smoothly. The project on the west side gumming up access to Annapurna restaurant will take longer than planned is not targeted to be wrapped up until October when digging and work will transition to the other side of Broadway. To help Annapurna with the extended schedule, Sound Transit has come up with another contest to help boost business.
Below, we’ve included a timeline of CHS’s coverage of Capitol Hill Station and U-Link tunnel construction. In late 2013, CHS reported the project to bore twin tunnels and complete stations at Montlake and on Broadway was six months ahead of schedule and $100 million below budget. Here’s where all the dirt ended up, by the way. The $1.9 billion project is now planned for an early 2016 start of service.
Meanwhile, the process to sell and develop Sound Transit’s land around Capitol Hill Station will reach an important peak in coming weeks as the final list of eligible developers prepare their bids and proposals for the properties. Once those projects begin, you’ll see four or five more giant cranes along Broadway.
CHS light rail construction timeline
- 9/24/2010 — Hill light rail construction gears up as future plans cut back — Ready for a giant crane?
- 12/1/2010 — Light rail update: Why those holes were drilled along Pine and where Cap Hill dirt ends up
- 3/16/2011 — With a splash of champagne, tunneling to Capitol Hill begins
- 3/26/2011 — Work begins to pour 10-foot-thick concrete floor of Broadway station
- 4/4/2011 — Sound Transit light rail dig between downtown and Hill reveals pieces of old Seattle
- 4/18/2011 — Giant light rail tunnel machinery moves into place at Broadway station site
- 6/10/2011 — 2016 here we come: Capitol Hill subway dig is ready to begin
- 10/6/2011 — Grey geyser bursts forth on E Pike — UPDATE: Light rail tunneling sends surprise to surface
- 11/10/2011 — Sound Transit says it has solution for neighbors rattled by light rail tunnel vibrations
- 12/1/2011 — Brenda takes a moment at the surface (before doing it all again)
- 4/2/2012 — Holethrough Part II — Second tunnel boring machine scheduled to bust through on Broadway
- 4/8/2013 — Putting the rail in Capitol Hill light rail, Sound Transit contractors ready to lay track
- 9/26/2013 — First light rail service at Capitol Hill Station still slated for 2016 — But Sound Transit talking early arrival
- 12/10/2013 — Capitol Hill light rail update: ‘Extraordinarily lucky’ thus far, construction moves on to Broadway’s ‘pedestrian concourse’
- 6/9/2014 — CHS Video | A walk in the light rail tunnel to Capitol Hill Station
- 7/31/2014 — Blue Angels above Seattle, Jet Kiss below Capitol Hill
I’m gonna miss that crane but I’ll get over it. It’s been fun to watch in motion and oogle these past three and a half years. It’s a pretty cool crane as cranes go.
Thanks for the update on the pedestrian concourse project. I look forward to the official announcement and explanation. That’s a lot of delay.
Is Sound Transit still not giving financial compensation to small businesses affected by this (per the linked early story related to the pedestrian walkway)? Poor Annapurna. They should be getting huge financial incentives for staying put (and open) during all this.
I haven’t heard of neighbors being compensated on projects like this before, but the crowds at the new station should be a consolation.
Yes, but only IF the place can hang on financially until then. I strongly think that Sound Transit should be giving Annapurna some kind of cash support.
[…] From CHS’s pre-crane-removal coverage: […]
I’ll miss it; it was beautiful. Dynamic. I’d have been happy to see Sound Transit junk all the public “art” for the station and just leave that crane up. Ah, that bright red against a blue sky, or a gray one. Really quite marvelous — both in operation and in purely formal, aesthetic terms.
[…] the meantime, heavy construction on the Capitol Hill Station is winding down towards an early 2016 opening of the light rail […]
[…] of Broadway. Earlier this summer, the giant construction crane that had towered over the site finally came down after three and a half years of hard […]