By Elizabeth Turnbull

This week as Seattle prepares to host President Joe Biden for Earth Day, one of the city’s most slam dunkable green infrastructure projects remains on the drawing board as diesel-spewing buses — joined by thousands of exhaust spewing, single occupancy vehicles, of course — continue to run up and down 23rd Ave despite a completed multimillion dollar overhaul of the corridor.

CHS first reported on plans to electrify Route 48 in 2016 as Metro was planning the upgrades to coincide with the Seattle Department of Transportation’s road diet, more pedestrian friendly overhaul of 23rd Ave across the Central District, Capitol Hill, and Montlake.

Officials now say that the 48 Route electrification project was put behind other projects due to COVID-19-related financial issues and staffing issues. The Seattle Transit Blog just reported the project is now slated to be completed by 2026.

“We kind of got into financial pinches of COVID, there was a pinch on dollars across the system,” Justin Umagat, a capital project manager at King County Metro tells CHS. “We had to prioritize which projects were going to receive funding and resources at the time, and unfortunately, this particular project was slightly deprioritized over other larger projects in our portfolio.”

But that the project was still sitting waiting to be implemented in the years before the pandemic is also indicative of how easily smaller but important green projects can get pushed aside even in a city that positions itself as an environmental leader on climate change.

In the time since, the project was first planned, Capitol Hill transit riders now have some much greener alternatives. The First Hill Streetcar and Capitol Hill light rail station carry thousands of riders a day on zero-emission trains. Metro’s zero-emissions electric trolley fleet also has expanded.

Out of a fleet of more than 1,400 buses, Metro currently operates 185 zero-emission buses, which includes 174 electric trolley buses that use overhead wires, and 11 battery-electric buses with charging stations at the Bellevue Base and Eastgate Park & Ride. Metro is adding an additional 40 battery-electric coaches this year. Produced by New Flyer, both the 60-foot and 40-foot vehicles can travel 140 miles on a full charge, tested to approximate a full passenger load, and have “off wire” capabilities to allow the trolleys to maneuver around blockages and route changes.

But not on Route 48.

With its 4 miles per gallon busses, the 48 route uses roughy 185,000 gallons of diesel fuel a year, according to a SDOT study conducted when the project began planning. Electric trolley bus technology was found to be $3.7 million cheaper annually than diesel hybrids, according the study. Electric trolleys could also significantly reduce noise along the busy corridor. And, by 2023, the 48 will be the only transit line to directly connect non-downtown stations on all three light rail lines at Mount Baker Station, Judkins Park Station, and UW Station.

Portions of Route 48 that overlap with Route 43 and 4 already have the overhead wire needed for electric trolleys, but missing intervals have meant that a full transition would be a significant undertaking in order to install power substations, trolley poles and wiring.

Cost estimates haven’t substantially increased — Metro still puts the number somewhere around $14.5 million, with around $9 million secured through federal grants — but Umagat expects work that is needed at Mount Baker and the potential of a second traction power substation to add increased costs.

Umagat said the 48 electrification project is currently in its negotiation phase of bringing on a preliminary designer to outline the key elements of the project. By the first quarter of 2023, the team is expected to fully flesh out the budget and get a more concrete sense of the ultimate timeline. That would put the project on track for completion in 2026.

Meanwhile, the old diesel trolleys will live on. After the 48 project is completed and the electrical cables are up, the diesel hybrid buses that currently drive the route will be deployed on Metro’s dozens of non-electrified routes, Metro says.

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.