About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Bellevue City Council Presentation,

(I went to the Bellevue City Hall to present the below to the City Council during their normal Monday night meeting only to find their next meeting isn’t until September 11th)

  Bellevue City Council Presentation,


My name is Bill Hirt and I’ve lived at 2615 170th Ave SE since 1967.  More than a decade ago, I made several presentations to the council attempting to persuade them to disallow the 10 permits Sound Transit needed for East Link. 

 

The council chose to ignore me and I’m here tonight because of one of the results of your decision, the East Link Starter Line debut next March.  Sound Transit intends to operate 2-car trains between Redmond Technology Center (RTC) and South Bellevue T/C every 10 minutes for 16 hours a day.  

 

I’m here tonight to prevent Starter Line operation from being an environmental nightmare for those along the route, exceeding the noise level limits in the Bellevue municipal code.  It limits levels to 55 dB in residential areas and 60dB in commercial.   Those limits resulted in ST spending millions to shield homes along route into Bellevue. 

 

However, they’ve made no attempt to shield those along route between RTC and Bellevue. Instead, approving a memorandum that limits their need to mitigate noise levels to whatever their CEO considers “reasonable and feasible”.  I’m here tonight to publicly tell you that the only way for the Starter Line to meet the Bellevue noise code is to dramatically slow the trains.  That the Bellevue City Council should insist ST’s “reasonable and feasible” noise mitigation include limiting speeds to as low as 15-20 mph. 

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