OMF Exemplifies East Link Fantasy

The April 13^th, Bellevue Reporter front-page article, “Construction underway at Sound Transit facility in Bellevue” detailed the April 4^th ground breaking for their Operations and Maintenance Facility (OMF) East.  It follows by nearly two years an April 29^th, 2016 Bellevue Reporter front-page article heralding East Link light rail extension “breaking ground” as a “cause for celebration”. (It looked like they used the same pile of dirt.) Both “ground-breakings” exemplify the failure of those participating to recognize Sound Transit’s East Link will end forever Bellevue’s persona as “the city in the park” and increase, not decrease, cross-lake congestion.

Sound Transit’s decision to confiscate the I-90 Bridge for light rail reflects two monumental blunders.  First, their East Link 2008 DEIS neglected to consider implementing two-way bus only lanes on the center roadway as the “no-build” alternative to light rail.  They simply ignored RCW 81.104.100 requiring they consider a far cheaper alterative high capacity transit (HCT),  bus-only lanes, for the bridge center roadway.

Second, they compounded that failure by refusing to recognize East Link’s share of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) capacity was limited to one 4-car train every 8 minutes, or thirty 74-seat light rail cars an hour.   They could have easily added light rail capacity with 50-60 additional buses an hour without spending a dime extending light rail.  (And, even more important, added buses could easily double or triple light rail capacity.)   Rather than increasing cross-lake transit capacity, Sound Transit plans to spend nearly $4 billion on East Link to replace existing cross-lake bus routes.  Apparently not recognizing the number of buses on HOV lane is not the reason for the bridge congestion.

None of this would be possible without WSDOT connivance.  It was WSDOT lawyers who “misled” a federal judge in the Freeman litigation claiming the I-90 Bridge center roadway wasn’t needed for vehicles if  4^th lanes were added to outer roadways.  They simply ignored a September 2004 FHWA Record of Decision stipulating the center roadway was still needed for vehicles with the added outer roadway lanes. 

The WSDOT allowed Sound Transit to confiscate the center roadway for a light rail system that will forever be limited to fewer than 5000 riders per hour, a fraction of what’s needed to meet future public transit requirements.  Since 2007 they've been planning to use the resulting outer roadway congestion to “justify” implementing HOT on the HOV lane.  Sound Transit has refused to add parking with access to bus service allowing I-90 corridor commuters to use increased public transit as an alternative.  The current congestion along the route is only a precursor to future gridlock on I-90 that will undoubtedly make 520 tolls more lucrative for WSDOT.  

Instead the April 4^th article details Sound Transit plans to spend $450 million on their OMF. When completed in 2020, it will “assure a safe, clean and comfortable ride for Sound Transit passengers, with light rail cars cleaned every night and regularly pulled out of service to perform routine maintenance”.  The light rail car fleet will grow from 62 to 214 vehicles to accommodate ST3 light rail extensions. 

The OMF overcame “backlash from the community” with claims it will attract Transit Oriented Development (TOD).  Typical of Sound Transit, their claim portions of the construction staging area can be developed for transit-oriented use providing, “1.1 million square feet of housing, office, and retail space,” seems overly “optimistic”.    

Bellevue Mayor Chelminiak apparently shares this fantasy claiming, “The transit-oriented design could serve as a model for other transit agencies around the country”.  He needs to identify developers who have shown an interest in property adjacent to a huge light-rail-car maintenance facility.  Especially one that presumably operates primarily between 12:00 and 5:00 every morning.  

It’s not clear how many of the planned 214 light rail cars will be cleaned and serviced at the Bellevue OMF.  However, apparently beginning in 2020, it's likely more than fifty 2, 3 and 4-car trains will trundle into and out of the OMF during those hours.  Sound Transit has already been forced to spend millions shielding Seattle homes from Central Link noise.  They’ve also committed to spend additional millions shielding homes adjacent to the route into Bellevue.  The potential for “noise” during the early morning hours would seem to be a “deterrent” for developers.

The bottom line is, like many of Sound Transit claims, their assumption developers will be attracted to provide TOD near OMF exemplifies their East Link fantasy.