In the coolest Capitol Hill article — ever — that CHS didn’t write, Seattle PI reporter Scott Gutierrez dug into what is happening already and what happens next behind the 10 to 20-foot plywood construction walls where Sound Transit contractors are beginning the work that will bring light rail to Capitol Hill by 2016. A lot of it touches on pieces that we’ve reported on in past but it’s a good brief that pulls it all together and adds some new info. We’ve been told that digging — and the increased truck traffic — won’t start until July. This CHS article from a year and a half(!) ago shows the full truck route Sound Transit has planned as well as tells you where the dirt is going. We also wrote about the threat from sandy voids to the project here. Additional addenda to the PI piece: Our article on SDOT’s work to make the truck route area safer for pedestrians and this piece on the nighttime noise the construction site will be allowed to produce when tunneling begins next year also has a handy project timeline.
I recently toured the site of Capitol Hill’s future light rail station to catch a glimpse behind the wall before major construction begins.
The block of Broadway Avenue between East Denny Way and John Street — where a bookstore, cafes and apartments previously stood — still is mostly paved flat. Tunneling from Capitol Hill to downtown won’t start for another year. When that starts, so will around-the-clock work.
On a recent Friday afternoon, workers showed where they were relocating utility lines along East Denny Way and driving soldier pilings to frame the pit from which the tunnel-boring machine will launch. The pit will be about 60-feet deep, 400 feet long and 100 feet wide. A 10-foot thick concrete slab will be poured at the bottom.
Workers are pumping jet grout into the ground on the north end to stabilize it.
The pit will become the future station.
