Northgate TBM to launch June 1

The machine, which between 2011 and 2012 successfully completed two one-mile tunnels for the University Link light rail project, is one of three TBMs that will help extend light rail 4.3 miles (6.9km) further north. The University Link light rail project is currently scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2016, six to nine months early, and is more than USD 100M under budget.

The USD 2.1bn Northgate Link Extension, which will open in 2021, will run mostly underground through one of the most congested travel corridors in the region and includes underground stations serving the U District and Roosevelt and an elevated station at Northgate.

Contractor JCM, a joint venture of Jay Dee Contractors of Livonia, Michigan, Frank Coluccio Construction Company of Seattle, and Michaels Corporation of Brownsville, Wisconsin, is now finalizing the TBM assembly before moving it into launch position to complete final safety and operational checklists. The TBM weighs more than 1 million pounds and stretches more than 300 feet long including the conveyor systems that remove the spoils. Sophisticated satellite technology guides the machine.

JCM won the contract for the Northgate Link tunneling work with a proposal that was 25 per cent below the engineer's estimate.

In 2016 Sound Transit will launch the construction of East Link light rail from downtown Seattle to Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond's Overlake area. Planning and environmental work are moving forward to establish alignments for extending light rail from Northgate to Lynnwood and from South 200th Street to the Kent/Des Moines area. Following the 2023 opening of all the Sound Transit 2 extensions that regional voters approved in 2008, Link trains are projected to carry more than 280,000 riders each weekday by 2030. The projects are playing a major role in the region's ongoing recession recovery, creating a projected 100,000 direct and indirect jobs.