March 28, 2022

Ballard Tunnel pump station will double as public art

Renderings courtesy of Johnston Architects [enlarge]

The tunnel will shimmer with hundreds of LED lights.

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Construction is expected to start on the pump station in 2023.

Designs for the new Ballard Tunnel Effluent Pump Station near the intersection of 24th Avenue Northwest and Shilshole Avenue show a station that is as much a piece of public art as it is infrastructure.

The station will be the only visible part of Seattle Public Utilities’ and King County Wastewater Treatment Division’s Ship Canal Water Quality Project. This $570 million infrastructure upgrade project will build a 29-million-gallon, 2.7-mile tunnel that will extend from Ballard to Wallingford for stormwater storage, retention and release.

The Ballard Pump Station is conceived as an opportunity to highlight the project and its unseen action in a visually arresting way. Early renderings show the tower wrapped in a 80-foot-tall stainless steel lattice illuminated by LEDs. The tower’s shifting lights will be programmed to reflect the weather forecast. An art piece by Native American artist Jeffrey Veregge will stand at the front of the tower depicting “the moon-alluring Octopus Woman.”

The new tunnel, which is currently in progress, will terminate at the Ballard pump station where stored water will be held in a well 100 feet deep and 80 feet wide. The water will then be slowly released into the system for treatment at West Point in Magnolia.

The tunneling is estimated to last through 2022. Once tunnel construction is complete, work will begin on the pump station.

Restoration work is also planned for the surrounding area at 24th Avenue Northwest, including pedestrian, parking and street-end improvements.

Johnston Architects was hired to showcase the most publicly visible part of the project.