Sound Transit has $90M to spend on Tacoma, Lakewood stations. How should it be used?
Sound Transit is seeking input from the public on how to spend $90 million for access improvements at two Pierce County Sounder stations in Lakewood and Tacoma.
The funding, approved by voters in 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 initiative, is meant to make it easier for people to access the stations.
That could take the form of things like pedestrian and bicycling crossings or connections between stations and their surrounding neighborhoods, new pickup and drop-off areas, shared parking, additional station lighting and weather shelters, adding curb ramps for people with disabilities or mobility devices, such as wheelchairs or walkers, and/or adding parking spaces for bikes and electric scooters.
The South Tacoma Sounder Station is at 5650 S. Washington St. and the Lakewood Station at 11424 Pacific Highway SW.
The proposed improvements can be viewed online at soundersouth.participate.online. There, people can share their opinions through Oct. 26.
After the comment period closes, the Sound Transit Board will identify a group of improvements to move forward into environmental review and conceptual engineering. That decision is expected to happen in the first half of 2022.
After the conceptual design and environmental review is complete, the board will select a list of specific improvements to be built. All improvements are targeted to be completed by 2030.
The Sounder South trains run between Lakewood and downtown Seattle during the weekday commute hours. The ride from Lakewood Station to Seattle’s King Street Station takes about 75 minutes, or 70 minutes between South Tacoma and Seattle.
