The station's construction entails the complete replacement of a cloverleaf interchange with a three-level interchange with separate ramps for buses.[1][2]
Projected costs of the NE 85th Street station are estimated at up to a third of a billion dollars, making it one of the most expensive BRT projects planned by Sound Transit.[3][4] The city's existing transit center is located about a mile away and at about 200 feet lower in elevation. A proposal to connect the two stations with a funicular climbing Rose Hill,[1] the first aerial tramway in the Seattle area, was proposed in the late 2010s.[5]
History
The project was approved by voters in 2016 with the passage of Sound Transit 3 and is fully funded at $250–300 million.[6] Public meetings for the project kicked off in April 2018.[7][8] The station was originally planned to open in 2024 after three years of construction.[4][needs update] The three-level design incorporating a dogbone interchange under Interstate 405 will be the first of its kind in the United States, and the most expensive bus stop in Sound Transit's bus rapid transit system.[1] Sound Transit estimates that the station could transport a few hundred passengers a day in the 2020s.[1]
A five-building office development for Google was planned southeast of the interchange on the site of a car dealership, with an estimated 7,000 employees by 2032.[9] Google canceled the project in 2023, but the city said that other opportunities for development in the vicinity of the bus station would be pursued.[10]
Construction
Project groundbreaking officialy took place in September 2023,[11] and major construction began in January 2024 with demolition of the I-405 cloverleaf ramps at Northeast 85th Street.[12]
