October 2, 2014

Design-build teams needed for $250M Eastside rail project

Images courtesy of Sound Transit [enlarge]

Ramps at Overlake Village Station will connect to a pedestrian/bike bridge over SR 520.

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Overlake Transit Center Station will have a 320-stall garage, a loop for buses and private vehicles, and a pedestrian/bike bridge over SR 520 to Microsoft.

Design-build teams interested in a major Sound Transit project called SR 520 to Overlake Transit Center have until Friday to submit their qualifications.

The E360 project will cost between $200 million and $250 million, and build 1.8 miles of double-tracked light-rail guideway, two at-grade transit stations, two pedestrian bridges over state Route 520, and related work such as utilities, roads, sidewalks and landscaping.

Sound Transit says there will be major subcontracting opportunities.

The agency will create a short list of candidates from those that respond to the RFQ and have them compete in the request for proposals phase, which will last about seven months.

Officials will pick a design-build team next summer and award a contract next fall. Construction will start in spring 2016 and is expected to finish in 2019.

In an email, a Sound Transit spokesman said the agency went with design-build because the work includes “constraints, complexities, and multiple permitting agencies that will influence the design, means and methods.”

He said design-build will be more efficient because the team will customize its design and work plan to fit the project conditions.

Sound Transit has used design-build on one University Link project and two South Link projects.

One big part of the E360 contract is two stations: one at the Overlake Village site and one at the Overlake Transit Center site, where Sound Transit now operates a 222-stall park-and-ride lot.

Each station will have a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that spans Route 520. They also will have entry plazas and passenger drop-off facilities.

The bridges are expected to open in 2020. They will be owned and maintained by the city of Redmond and will be about a half-mile from each other.

Microsoft kicked in $33.3 million for a bridge to connect Overlake Transit Center Station to an area near its visitor center and other buildings.

Overlake Village Station will be west of 152nd Avenue Northeast. Its bridge will connect to a regional trail system and the growing urban center called Overlake Village, both west of Route 520.

Overlake Transit Center Station will have a 320-stall parking garage, office space and a loop with platforms for buses and private shuttles. The station will be west of 156th Avenue Northeast and south of Northeast 40th Street.

The spokesman wrote that Sound Transit will lease the 4,500 square feet of office space to Microsoft to replace a building at the existing transit center where the software company operates its own transit services. That building will be torn down.

CH2M Hill and HJH have done preliminary work on the E360 contract. HJH is a joint venture of HNTB, Jacobs, and Hatch Mott MacDonald.

(Editor's note: This article has been changed to reflect that HNTB is part of the HJH joint venture, not HDR.)

The E360 contract is part of the $2.8 billion East Link project that will connect the Eastside and Seattle with 14 miles of light-rail track. Service is expected to start in 2023.

For more information on the E360 contract, see the notice in the Aug. 26 DJC.