West Seattle Blog… | WEST SEATTLE LIGHT RAIL: Final Environmental Impact Statement released ahead of schedule

As in 2022 with the Draft environmental impact statement, Sound transit has published the Final environmental impact study for the West Seattle light rail ahead of its official release date (September 20). We have been monitoring the ST site to determine the likelihood of this happening (as stated in 2022, the “early” release refers to the Federal Register); thanks to Joe for pointing out that it has happened since our last check earlier today. We haven't started reading it yet, but are posting links for those who want to dive right in. You can start here – this page has links to more than 50 chapters and appendices. If you want to jump straight to the main points, you can start with the 44-page summary found here. This is all a prelude to the Sound Transit Board's final decision on the routing and stop locations; the date for that has not yet been set.

ADDED 1:30 PM: If you want to see more renderings (the one we showed at the top of this story is from the executive summary), Informant Joe reminds us that you can find them in the 268-page “Visual and Technical Aesthetics” section – go here and scroll down to page 73 (titled “Appendix N.2A: Analysis of Key Observation Points”). You'll find dozens of images there, like this one showing what the new bridge dedicated to the light rail line could look like:

More to come. In the meantime, we also want to remind you that ST has announced in-person information sessions for September 25 and October 1 in West Seattle and October 2 in SODO – details here.