Sound Transit will host an open house this month to discuss a project that will replace the existing Tacoma Trestle, which is located east of Freighthouse Square in the Dome District, as part of an effort to increase capacity and improve reliability for additional Sounder commuter rail passenger trips.
According to Sound Transit officials, the Tacoma Trestle project was approved by voters in 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 system expansion plan. Sound Transit is replacing the 100-year-old wooden single track railroad trestle with a modern, double-track bridge. The new bridge aims to provide increased capacity and improved reliability for additional Sounder and Amtrak passenger trips, as well as Tacoma Rail freight movements.
The Tacoma Trestle project includes demolition and removal of the existing 0.65-mile single-track bridge and trestle; construction of a new double-track rail bridge and crossover tracks; upgrades to the embankment along the trestle; upgrades to the railroad signals; minor street reconstruction and utility relocations; and a study of the feasibility of building an extended passenger platform.
Sound Transit expects to complete the final design this summer, begin construction in 2016, and complete the project in 2017.
Last year, the City of Tacoma agreed to sell a 1.2-mile stretch of City-owned railroad (including the Tacoma Trestle) to Sound Transit for $4 million and approximately 1.2 acres of Sound Transit-owned property near the intersection of Pacific Avenue and South 26th Street.
The Tacoma Trestle project open house will be held on Thurs., March 19, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., at the University of Washington Tacoma, Jane Russell Commons, William W. Phillip Hall, located at 1918 Pacific Ave., in downtown Tacoma. Attendees will learn more about the design concepts for the trestle and platform, as well as next steps.
More information is available online here and here and here.
To read the Tacoma Daily Index‘s complete and comprehensive coverage of the Tacoma Trestle project, click on the following links:
- Key Tacoma, Pierce County transportation projects awarded regional grants (Tacoma Daily Index, Oct. 30, 2014)
- Sound Transit schedules open house for Tacoma Trestle replacement project (Tacoma Daily Index, Feb. 6, 2014)
- Tacoma approves Sound Transit railroad sale (Tacoma Daily Index, Jan. 17, 2014)
- City Hall News: Broadway Center fundraising, railroad sale and legislative updates (Tacoma Daily Index, Jan. 10, 2014)
- Tacoma moves closer to selling railroad tracks to Sound Transit (Tacoma Daily Index, Dec. 11, 2013)
- Sound Transit could purchase 1.2-mile Tacoma rail line (Tacoma Daily Index, Dec. 10, 2013)
- State approves money for fencing under Tacoma Dome railroad trestle (Tacoma Daily Index, Oct. 15, 2009)
Sound Transit plans to replace the century-old wooden single-track railroad trestle at Tacoma Dome Station with a modern, double-track bridge. (IMAGE COURTESY SOUND TRANSIT)
Sound Transit plans to replace the century-old wooden single-track railroad trestle at Tacoma Dome Station with a modern, double-track bridge. (FILE PHOTO BY TODD MATTHEWS)
