Sound Transit staff and Board members, along with elected officials and community partners celebrated the start of construction on the 7.8-mile Federal Way Link Extension with the debut of a new video.
The Federal Way Link will extend light rail from Angle Lake Station in SeaTac to the Federal Way Transit Center.
With King County currently under COVID-19 health guidelines, a traditional in-person groundbreaking event could not take place, so instead they produced this video:
Powering Progress: Federal Way Link Extension Groundbreaking from Sound Transit on Vimeo.
Opening in 2024, the route to Federal Way will offer service between South King County and Sea-Tac Airport, downtown Seattle, the University of Washington, Northgate, Lynnwood and Bellevue.
The extension includes three new stations serving Kent/Des Moines, South 272nd Street and the Federal Way Transit Center.
“I can’t understate how excited I am about the Federal Way Link Extension and how important this project is to our community,” said King County Councilmember and Sound Transit Boardmember Dave Upthegrove. “This will provide economic opportunity and transportation connections for a part of King County that needs it the most.”
The $3.1 billion light rail project includes a $790 million Capital Investment Grant from the Federal Transit Administration and a $629.5 million Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
By 2021, Sound Transit says it will expand light rail to the University District, Roosevelt and Northgate. In 2022, Tacoma Link will expand to the Hilltop neighborhood. In 2023, trains will reach Mercer Island, Bellevue and the Overlake area. In addition to the Federal Way Link Extension, 2024 will bring the opening of extensions to Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood and Downtown Redmond.
More information on the Federal Way Link Extension is available at soundtransit.org/fwlink.
