(rshsdepot) King Street Station, Seattle, WA

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Worries Over King St. Station ; State Unhappy With Monorail Plans
Seattle Post - Intelligencer
April 10, 2004


Twenty-first-century monorail trains will soon be converging with
traditional 20th-century rails in the oldest part of Seattle.
Can they peacefully coexist?

The Seattle Monorail Project, getting ready to build the 21st- century
variety, says running its new elevated trains a few feet away from the
vintage King Street rail station should work out fine.

Running the new trains between the old red-brick station and a newer office
building to the west, and setting up a monorail station south of the old
rail station, should create a well-used transfer point near not only the
rail lines but the city's two sports stadiums, monorail officials say.

"We think it's going to look great, that it's going to be an enhancement,"
said Kevin Raymond, government-relations manager for the Seattle Monorail
Project. Moreover, he said, that segment of the route was specifically
approved by voters, and can't be changed.

But the state Department of Transportation, which is leading the effort to
renovate the old King Street Station, is not pleased with the idea of having
the elevated monorail guideways passing a few feet away from the station's
grand old facade.

The state also worries that support piers for monorail tracks south of the
old rail building will block expansion of the ground- level rail tracks that
is needed if conventional rail passenger traffic keeps expanding.

The state has been unable to change the monorail project's mind so far, but
it has carried its objections to the City Council, which must grant its
approval to the monorail alignment before construction can begin.

Placing the monorail a few feet from the old station's door will complicate
and perhaps "stymie" efforts to renew and expand the old rail station, said
Ron Sheck, the state's urban rail program manager.

"It would be damaging to access to our front door at Third and King," he
said. "I think there is a concern that we would be boxed in."

He said the monorail has changed its route in at least two other places due
to neighborhood questions. "There's precedent."

The station is just one of 128 historic properties along the 14- mile
monorail route that would be affected and that the monorail agency must deal
with. It is now writing a federally-required plan that assesses the new
line's effects on historic buildings and specifies measures to deal with
them.

Raymond says the costs of dealing with construction impacts alone are
expected to top $1 million. That doesn't include the costs that could be
incurred where construction unearths valuable archaeological sites.

Three of the 128 properties, including the existing Monorail, would be torn
down to make way for two stations and for part of the new system.

Other building managers also have questions and are looking for assurances
that the monorail won't hurt their property. "We hope you will understand
our very serious concerns about the impacts that the monorail will have on
our building," wrote Kathy Robertson, manager of the art-deco Exchange
Building on Second Avenue. The monorail will pass within a few feet of that
structure. Other affected businesses range from a chili restaurant in
Ballard to industries on 15th Avenue Northwest and even Smith Tower in
Pioneer Square.

The state is leading a $16.8-million effort to restore the old rail station,
built in 1906 by the Great Northern Railway, a predecessor to the Burlington
Northern Santa Fe.

Now in its initial stage, the work will include expanding the waiting room,
new restrooms and ticket and baggage areas, new ventilation and heating
systems, repairing the terrazzo floor and replacing the roof. Also to be
restored are the clock in the tower and staircases from the King Street
level to Jackson Street.

Sheck said the purpose is to get the station in shape to handle what he said
is an expected growth in rail passenger riders and trips, including those of
Amtrak trains and Sound Transit Sounder trains between Seattle, Tacoma and
Everett. Rail ridership on the Seattle-Portland Amtrak trains has nearly
tripled in the past 10 years, he said.

The station building work began last year and is expected to continue until
mid-2005. A $75-million track improvement project, to prepare for expanded
service, and rebuilding of old street bridges overhead, would be done from
2005 to 2007.

The monorail has not yet said how far from the old station it will locate
support posts for its overhead guideway system, part of a 14-mile system
it's preparing to build between Ballard and West Seattle with connections to
downtown and the Pioneer Square area near the King Street Station.

But Sheck said the posts could eliminate needed parking at the old stations'
King Street level and could constrain car and taxi access to the entrance.

It could also block areas south of the station where new ground- level rail
tracks might be laid or older ones relocated. In a recent letter to the
monorail board, the state asked the Seattle agency to consider altering its
elevated train route to bypass the old station to the east along part of
Fourth Avenue, avoiding the entrance on the old building's west side and
eliminating the track crossing just south of the building.

Sheck also raised the concerns at a monorail board meeting March 29, but the
board adopted the original alignment, to the west of the station and
crossing the tracks. Sheck said he's now taken up the issue with the city.
He argues that the state proposal might save time for the monorail trains by
eliminating one curve.

He also voices concern that construction activity, particularly pile driving
near the old station might cause damage to the structure. Previous
construction has caused settling in the floor and exterior sidewalks and
driveways.

Monorail officials, however, say they can't change that part of the route.
Raymond says voters approved the original monorail alignment plan, drawn up
nearly two years ago, that calls for a monorail station "in the vicinity of"
the area between the old King Street rail station and the newer King Street
Center Building, located across a parking lot and west of the train station.

Because of this "our lawyers have told us we're constrained" to the chosen
alignment, Raymond said. The Fourth Avenue alignment "would be inconsistent
with the plan approved by voters, and it is therefore not an alignment
option we could lawfully pursue," monorail director Joel Horn wrote in a
letter to the state.

Given the legal question, monorail officials say they haven't developed any
cost estimates for the Fourth Avenue route.

Raymond says costs could be higher, and engineering challenges greater, on
that section of street because it sits on an old bridge. He says the
monorail will take measures to protect the old station and other historic
buildings in the Pioneer Square area, though his agency is still considering
the kinds of steps that might be needed. "It's a work in progress," he said,
but if there's damage during construction "we stop."

But the state is persisting. The state and the monorail agency have other
issues to work out, including needed state permission for the monorail to
cross the Alaskan Way Viaduct enroute to West Seattle. So far, people on
both sides say the two issues haven't become intertwined.

Raymond said the plan for dealing with historic properties is being
rewritten and will soon be discussed at a public meeting yet to be set.

The monorail's environmental impact statement said three of the 90-odd
historic properties will have to be demolished to make way for stations: the
1962 Monorail, which runs on a route the new one will use; the Federal
Reserve Building on Second Avenue; and a home in the 3000 block of 16th
Avenue West in Interbay.

"The name of the game at this point is to identify impacts and provide for
satisfactory mitigation of those," Raymond said.

"That's how the greater good would be achieved."

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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