According to KOMO news (click here), Tukwila resident David Shumate was so annoyed by Sound Transit’s light rail noise that he bought a decibel reader to measure it.

“The residents on East Marginal Way South say the noise the new light rail is forcing on their neighborhood far exceeds the minimal noise they were promised during the design and building phases. They claim the noise from the testing runs is so loud that their ears hurt.

“The train is louder, a lot louder than we expected and a lot louder than Sound Transit said it would be,” said David Shumate.

“It’s a higher-pitched squeaking,” said Lynn Sires, who says the noise wakes her up.

Shumate even bought a decibel meter to measure the noise reverberating out to his house and his neighbors. The noise registered as high as 88 decibels. An average vacuum cleaner runs at about 75 to 80 decibels.”

If accurate, that decibel range is far higher than allowed, and Sound Transit will have to mitigate for it. The neighborhood apparently wants noise barriers installed along the line like those installed a mile further down.

Get going, Sound Transit. Do the right thing.

A tunnel for Bellevue? Watch the budget TheNewsTribune.com, WA At the urging of East Side leaders, Sound Transit has been studying the possibility of sending light rail underground through Bellevue's downtown core. The regional transit agency has already bored a hole through Beacon Hill and is about to start doing ...

Here in Pugetopolis it's still a matter of faith that growth is unstoppable and the urbanization is the answer to all our prayers. I've written that growth is often the result of national policies (land grants, homesteading, land reclamation, tax incentives, bank deregulation) and as such, it can be steered and controlled. We could, for example, create policies that could help repopulate fading rural areas, such as the proposed New Homestead Act. But U.S. rural areas aren't the only places losing population. Many of the world's cities are also shrinking. That trend is most visible in Europe (new ...

Sound Transit East Link Project & Program Managers have been assuring folks potentially impacted by Sound Transit’s East Link project for years that tunneling is completely safe...

Take a look at this article by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (click here).Perhaps the potential impacts from tunneling aren’t always so benign…

“Sound Transit is monitoring a Beacon Hill neighborhood after a large sinkhole formed on a resident’s property about 135 feet above the northbound light rail tunnel, the agency said Friday.

Obayashi Corp., the agency’s contractor, sent crews to plug the hole with cement-like filler material. The property owner notified Sound Transit March 29 about the hole with concerns that tunnel construction caused it. Tunnel boring was completed more than a year ago.

“The strange thing is we don’t know exactly how it was formed. We would have had to have done extensive geological investigation into the hole, which would have incurred costs and taken time,” Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said. “We’re not aware of any reason to be concerned. That said, we’re going to be closely monitoring the area around there.”

Comments from the article:

“Here is my take on this from a well driller’s perspective. The tunnel boring machine disrupted the continuity of either a perched aquifer or alluvial layer. Heavy rains now flow downward, unrestricted, towards the tunnel which serves as a new artificial aquifer (around its circumference). Higher water flow (velocity) underground leads to sinkholes. Reporters take note: Ask to review the hydrological reports for tunnel drain systems (this week especially). Review the soil sample reports from material collected in tunnel outfall scuppers. What you will find is that the same soil from that sink hole is showing up in the tunnel drainage systems. Metro will show higher than normal silt in storm drains”

And again:

“They can’t just plug it up without knowing the cause. Whatever caused it can cause more sink holes. Something there is probably unstable. It might be caused by some construction error that will be repeated in future Sound Transit tunnels. This can cause damage to homes near the tunnel. (The people living there need to file complaints and try to establish some kind of liability just in case.) It can *kill* people when trains start going through. Please, please, please…go hire an expert — a geotechnical engineer — and get an assessment. If they know what they’re doing it should be just a few thousand dollars. YOU HAVE TO DO IT!!! Morons. I don’t think they *want* to find out anymore about the problem — it might cost them a huge amount of money and time to fix it.

Perhaps Sound Transit should go ahead & incur the geological costs necessary to ensure lives and unnecessary damage to private property….

A majority of the Bellevue City Council (Mayor Grant Degginger, Patsy Bonnicontri, Claudia Balducci, and John Chelminiak) have voted for utilizing an alignment (B3) for Sound Transit’s East Link light rail along Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue SE, that would require that the Winters House (see Eastside Heritage Center’s post #8, on map), a home on the National Register of Historic Places, be moved.

Moving the home would likely ruin its historical significance. It has yet to be determined if moving the home would be possible without destroying it. That could be a fatal flaw in the plan.

3 Council members- Dr. Don Davidson, Conrad Lee, and Phil Noble- voted to utilize the BNSF alignment (B7), which would not impact the Winters House.

Meanwhile, the Eastside Heritage Center (click here) has sent an email to Sound Transit during the DEIS comment period, asking for protection for the Historic home, as have numerous Bellevue residents and business owners.

Other sites recognized as architecturally and/or historically significant by the City of Bellevue that are potentially adversely impacted by the East Link project’s eventual preferred alignment are:

1. The Sacred Heart Church on Main Street (see Eastside Heritage Center’s post #5, with map), and

2. Numerous homes on the north end of the Surrey Downs neighborhood, which were designed by recognized architects Mithun and Neslund, and are quintessential examples of 1950′s Modernist architecture.

See the link to an organization that advocates for  Modernist architecture, docomomo-wewa here: http://www.docomomo-wewa.org/architects_detail.php?id=66

Also, here is the link to Historic Seattle‘s web page on advocacy: http://www.historicseattle.org/advocacy/default.aspx

The hybrid alignment the Council approved this week has not yet been adopted by the Sound Transit Board.

Bellevue citizens! Utilize your chance to communicate with the Bellevue City Council  regarding Sound Transit’s proposed alignments for light rail in Bellevue.

The hearing will start at 8 p.m. in the Council chambers at City Hall, 450 110th Ave. NE.

Sound Transit released a draft environmental impact statement for East Link on Dec. 12, 2008, and set a 75-day comment period. The document is a detailed study of potential routes in Bellevue.

The deadline to comment is Feb. 25.

Here are a few highlights from some compelling arguments put forth by Eastside Rail Now at : http://www.eastsiderailnow.org/proposition_1_redo.html

1.   It would do little to reduce traffic congestion…”In fact, the plan could even increase congestion in some areas, such as the I-90 corridor.”

3.   Poor choices were made on selecting the rail routes.…”The most urgent need for rail transit on the Eastside by far is in the I-405 corridor (which would also be vastly cheaper than the I-90 corridor).”

4. It would downgrade some existing bus service. For example, several bus routes between Seattle and the Eastside would likely be eliminated or cut back in attempt to induce their riders to switch to the light rail line.

8.   Serious technical problems remain regarding use of the I-90 floating bridge. “Rail transit has never before been attempted on a floating bridge…”

9.   It would have an adverse effect on freight mobility. Constructing a rail line on the I-90 floating bridge would reduce the freight capacity of the region’s most important east-west road freight corridor.

14.   It is enormously expensive, despite only marginal benefits.  …”Furthermore, these are only the direct monetary costs — not included are a variety of other costs, including the opportunity costs, that is, the loss to the region from not using the same funds for more effective projects, such as lower cost rail lines with better routes.”

And here’s the kicker:

16.   It would preclude the region from taking on more worthy projects for decades. The region would become legally locked into this massive and unprecedented tax increase and its poorly planned projects for many years. Tax capacity would be exhausted for decades, and all flexibility to reduce taxes or to replace the Proposition 1 projects with more effective projects, including those that might become necessary due to changing circumstances, would be lost. 

It’s the Opportunity Cost, folks… see the link here

See their website at: http://www.eastsiderailnow.org/proposition_1_redo.html

Here is the first 10:

1.   It would do little to reduce traffic congestion.

2.   It would provide little environmental benefit.

3.   Poor choices were made on selecting the rail routes.

4.   It would downgrade some existing bus service.

5.   It would result in wasteful construction of duplicative facilities.

6.   The start of rail operations would be too slow.

7.   It is mainly a transit system for Seattle.

8.   Serious technical problems remain regarding use of the I-90 floating bridge.

9.   It would have an adverse effect on freight mobility.

10.   So-called “bus rapid transit” may not be effective.

Read all “29 Reasons to Vote No”  at : http://www.eastsiderailnow.org/proposition_1_redo.html

The Bellevue City Council will seek comments from people about proposed changes to the city’s Comprehensive Plan and other recommendations related to developing a light rail system at a study session Monday at City Hall.

Proposed light rail project draws keen interest Eastside Business Journal, Washington - 3 hours ago A large crowd turned out for Monday's Council study session to hear Sound Transit staff update elected officials on a proposed East Link Light Rail project ...