Pretty much ready and waiting (Image: Sound Transit)
The station has stood mostly complete — since May 2022 (Image: Sound Transit)
Judkins Park Station is mostly ready and waiting but the first light rail trains probably won’t arrive there until the spring of 2025.
Sound Transit says ongoing construction problems will further delay its expansion to the Eastside including the new Judkins Park Station in the Central District. In a construction update (PDF), Sound Transit said a major project for “track reconstruction” is “progressing slower than planned.”
The Seattle Times reported here on the multimillion dollar mistakes that have caused contractors to start over on hundreds of concrete track ties on the I-90 portion of the new light rail route.
Sound Transit has now revised its plans for a spring 2025 opening of the line and the new Judkins Park station with its design that honors neighborhood music legend Jimi Hendrix.
(Image: Sound Transit)
It’s the latest push back on the schedule. CHS reported here in 2022 on the timeline falling back to a winter 2024 start.
Long planned for a June 2023 opening and at one time lined up for 2020, the 2008-approved line will connect Bellevue, Redmond, and Seattle across the I-90 bridge — including the new station smack-dab in the middle of I-90 just south of Judkins Park, the western-most station on the 10-stop East Link line which was expected to carry 50,000 riders by 2030.
When it does finally open, the new station will serve a changing area of the city. New development plans include a proposal for a seven-story, more than 200-unit apartment building on 21st Ave S.
A portion of the line is likely to be activated early on the Eastside with Sound Transit’s latest update putting the partial opening to serve a route between South Bellevue and Redmond. That could come as soon as spring 2024, Sound Transit says.
The delays come as ridership on the current light rail system including Capitol Hill Station has finally climbed back to pre-pandemic levels leaving officials to scramble to improve the rider experience amid increased safety and cleanliness concerns.
Officials are also pounding out the final alignments for another round of expansions that will create new connections through the city’s core while adding service to West Seattle and Ballard.
Sound Transit currently estimates a start of service for West Seattle in 2032 with Ballard coming online sometime between 2037 and 2039.
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“Hundreds of concrete ties”, try thousands! 5,455 to be exact. We’ll be lucky if this line is functional by 2025 now.
Well I think it’s unlikely that sound transit will ever operate a functional system.
What an abomination of a transit agency and contractor.
Waiting to see this station get graffiti’d into oblivion while it sits there all complete and nice looking. Then it’ll be on the list of projects for the Mayor’s volunteer day in 2024!
It is a shame to see the extent the Capitol Hill light rail station has already been trashed.
The glass in the Denny has been completely defaced. Our neighborhood doesn’t deserve nice things.
When that station opens so many people will be killed. On the west side of Rainier you have to walk across and entrance and exit ramp with cars flying by.
Wow, loving the optimistic comments. Shhheeesh.