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News from King County Department of Transportation
Release date:
Feb. 6, 2008
New Redmond Transit Center opens Saturday, Feb. 9
The new Redmond Transit Center opens Saturday, Feb. 9 with improved
boarding areas, passenger shelters, and lighting for bus riders
traveling on more than a dozen
Metro and Sound Transit
routes.
Located at 16160 NE 83rd St. in the heart of downtown Redmond, the $7.2
million transit center is a joint project between King County Metro
Transit, Sound Transit, and the City of Redmond. It replaces a smaller,
cramped set of bus stops originally constructed in 1978.
“Redmond is a growing, thriving community and its bus riders will soon
benefit from the services available in this modern transit center,” said
King County Executive Ron Sims.
“In Redmond and across the Eastside, people are turning to public
transportation to personally help reduce local traffic congestion and
slow global warming. King County is supporting those efforts by
providing more transit services and options.”
Those increased options at the Redmond Transit Center include two new
Metro routes and more service on one of Sound Transit’s busiest routes.
“Sound Transit and our regional partners are giving Redmond more ways to
get around,” said Sound Transit Boardmember and Kirkland City
Councilmember Mary-Alyce Burleigh. “We at Sound Transit understand that
improving mobility on the Eastside is critical to improving the
livability and the economic vitality of the community and the entire
region.”
The transit center is located adjacent to the existing Redmond
Park-and-Ride, which will soon be replaced with a three-floor garage
offering more than 380 parking stalls. Metro begins construction on the
garage this spring. Work is already underway on a Transit Oriented
Development (TOD) next to the garage site that includes housing and
commercial space.
“These three projects help to support my vision of two vibrant and
economically viable urban centers in Redmond – one here in downtown and
the other in Overlake,” said Redmond Mayor John Marchione. “With the
transit center in place, downtown and Overlake will be joined by
convenient new transit routes, and the new TOD development will further
enhance our walkable downtown.”
The new transit center has six bus bays and a separate bus layover area
that will concentrate transit service into a central downtown location.
It improves pedestrian safety by providing more visible crosswalks and
continuous sidewalks on both sides of Northeast 83rd Street. The
addition of off-street layover space and the transit turnaround for
buses will significantly improve transit efficiency. These two elements
will allow the transit agencies to put more service hours into carrying
passengers, instead of “deadheading” empty buses to satellite layover
locations.
As of Saturday, Feb. 9, the transit center will be served by: Metro
routes 221 (new), 230, 232, 248 (new), 250, 251, 253, 265, 266, 291,
922, 929; and ST Express 545. Beginning Monday, Feb. 11, Sound Transit
will be doubling midday service on ST Express 545 from every 30 minutes
to every 15 minutes, and adding extra peak period trips during times
when loads are heaviest. Ridership has steadily grown each time Sound
Transit has increased service on Route 545, making Route 545 Sound
Transit’s second-busiest bus route, after Route 550 serving Bellevue,
Mercer Island, and Seattle.
The $7.2 million transit center was designed and constructed by Metro,
with $6 million from Sound Transit and the remainder from a federal
grant. The transit center was constructed on county property and city
street right-of-way.
Metro is designing, constructing, and funding the new garage, while
private developer Trammell Crow Residential is building the TOD project.
The city is reviewing and permitting all of the projects, which are
designed to meet goals of Redmond’s Downtown Transportation Master Plan.
There will be a few “growing pains” over the next year as construction
is completed on the garage and TOD project. Approximately two-thirds of
the parking spaces at the park-and-ride lot were closed in December for
the development. In addition to the remaining 100 spaces at the
park-and-ride, Metro has acquired 110 spaces two blocks away in a
temporary surface lot near the City Hall Campus Garage. There are also
178 temporary spaces close to the Bear Creek Park-and-Ride, which is
served by several of the same bus routes that stop at the Redmond
Transit Center. Parking at the transit center will return to former
levels in Spring 2009, when the new garage opens.
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