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Week of Mar. 9 2009
New park-and-ride spaces scheduled to open in April at Northgate Transit Center
There will be 350 new park-and-ride spaces at the Thornton Place (large building at left) garage for Metro Transit riders using the Northgate Transit Center (far right).
| Up to 350 new park-and-ride spaces leased by King County Metro Transit are scheduled to open in April east of the Northgate Transit Center. They will be located in the garage of the new Thornton Place development at Northeast 103rd Street and Third Avenue Northeast in Seattle.
These new spaces will give transit users more parking options closer to the Northgate Transit Center, particularly when the Northgate Park-and-Ride on Fifth Avenue Northeast closes at the end of May. The city of Seattle recently bought that parking lot from King County to build a new community park. Also at the end of May, Metro will be losing the 63 spaces in the Target garage on Fifth Avenue.
The Northgate area is a busy transit hub for Metro. There are hundreds of park-and-ride spaces in multiple lots and garages. But, because of ongoing construction projects, the number of spaces has fluctuated since 2002.
The redevelopment of the super-block south of the mall and adjacent to the transit center is part of the plans for a urban village in the Northgate area. |
When the dust finally settles by the end of this year, there will still be approximately 1,500 parking spaces for transit passengers, but more of the spaces will be concentrated closer to the Northgate Transit Center located on First Avenue Northeast. The transit center is served by 13 Metro and two Sound Transit bus routes, and there are more than 6,000 bus boardings on an average weekday in the Northgate area.
Starting this April, the new indoor parking in the Thornton Place garage will be available to transit customers arriving from 6-10 a.m. weekdays. Vehicles can access the parking on the two lower levels of the building from Third Avenue Northeast via Northeast 100th Street. The lot will be available to transit users until 8 p.m. weekdays.
Thornton Place is being developed by Lorig Associates and Stellar Holdings as an urban village, and features both residential and commercial space. By this summer, the mixed-use complex will have 386 condominium homes and apartments, retail shops, and a 14-screen all digital cinema with two IMAX screens – all located just across the street from the Northgate Transit Center.
These public-private partnerships in the Northgate area are not new for Metro. In 2007, the county began leasing 280 spaces for park-and-ride use in the new Northgate Mall garage just north of the transit center.
For many years, King County has been looking to the future in making transit improvements to the Northgate area. Working with the city, Sound Transit, and private developers, Metro’s goal is to integrate the busy transit center into the high-density, mixed-use urban development on the “super block” south of the mall. This also sets the stage for Sound Transit’s expansion of light rail to Northgate, and helps the City of Seattle achieve its growth management targets.
Between this April and June, Metro will be making other improvements near the Northgate Transit Center. Watch for Rider Alerts at bus stops and visit Metro Online for updates.
A wild weekend of weather kept crews throughout the King County Department of Transportation busy Friday through Monday. The “March madness” storm fronts brought with them snow, rain, sunshine, more snow, ice, hail, and just about any other condition in the weather playbook. Metro Transit staff began preparing for weather-related transit disruptions Friday afternoon and stayed on alert through Tuesday morning. There were intermittent delays and short reroutes for just a few bus routes Saturday night, Sunday morning and again Monday morning. Most bus service operated with regular routes and schedules, but Metro staff kept a close eye on changing travel conditions through the ice threat of Tuesday morning. For the King County Road Services Division, crews were out over the weekend and Monday to clear snow and ice in trouble spots, but there no widespread travel problems with roads in unincorporated areas. The snow squalls created some clean-up work in the Fall City, North Bend, Black Diamond and Enumclaw areas, but any accumulations quickly melted. Also this weekend, Metro helped launch two new tools for sharing information about service disruptions. It posted to the new King County blog and Twitter account to both receive and share information about the travel conditions and bus service across the county.
County hosts spot auction this Wednesday, March 11The next King County Spot Bid auction will take place Wednesday, March 11 and features surplus office equipment and furniture.
The auction is managed by the Fleet Administration Division, and includes both King County surplus and items from other government agencies. Previews are on auction day only, from 10 a.m. until the start of the bidding process at noon.
The auction will take place at Fleet’s warehouse at 707 S. Orcas St., Seattle. For information, photos and driving directions, visit the auction website. |
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