(The Center Square) – The Sound Transit Board of Directors on Thursday decided on a preferred alternative for the Tacoma Dome Link Extension, which includes a route through South Federal Way, Milton and into Tacoma, with a station at the Tacoma Dome. The project includes exploring additional station options in Fife.
According to the agency, the identification of its preferred light rail routes and stations indicates the direction the Sound Transit Board is currently leaning.
“This action brings us one step closer to delivering our shared vision of a world-class, three-county light rail system,” Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine said in a statement on Thursday. “[The Tacoma Dome extension] will transform regional travel so fundamentally that we’ll wonder how we ever did without it.”
The agency chose to line the light rail extension along State Route 99, instead of along Interstate 5, which was advocated for by the city of Federal Way, due to cultural artifacts along the highway.
To line refers to expanding an existing light rail system by adding new tracks, stations, and potentially new lines to connect previously unserved areas.
Sound Transit’s decision to line the light rail along State Route 99 avoids “impacts to known highly sensitive cultural resources along I-5 in south Federal Way,” according to the board’s motion.
Sound Transit coordinated extensively with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians due to a portion of the route and two stations being located on its reservation. The agency said it will continue to work with the tribe throughout every phase of the project.
The total projected cost of the Tacoma Dome Link Extension is $4.63 billion, with an in-service date set for some time in 2035. The project’s original cost was set at $2.9 billion in 2019 but increased due to reductions in tax and fare revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Tacoma Dome Link Extension is part of the $54 billion Sound Transit 3 Plan that was approved for funding by voters in 2016.
With the preferred light rail route and station locations identified, the project now enters the preliminary engineering and environmental impact statement phase.
The Sound Transit Board will not make a final decision on the project to be built until after the final EIS is published, which is anticipated in 2027. Construction for the project was originally set to begin next year and end in 2032.
