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News & ArtsSaturday, January 12, 2013
City A Photojourney: Nine Stories Underground, in the University District Station
Posted by Kelly O on Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 9:21 AM
Photos by Kelly O, text by Cienna Madrid.
When Sound Transit's University District Station opens in 2016, it will be capable of shuttling some estimated 20,000 passengers a day from the U-District to downtown in six minutes. Boring on the tunnel lines was complete last year and workers are now busy constructing the U-District station from the top down, through the water table. Yesterday, Kelly and I took the tour.
This is one of the two tunnels entering the U-District station. The tunnel runs 300 feet below ground at its deepest point, under Volunteer Park, before emerging in the U-District.
These pillars are part of the "head house" of the U-District station. Work on the station and tunnels at this point is 60 percent complete.
Here's us, preparing to descend 900 feet down into the belly button of the earth. You can almost smell China from here!
This will be the eventual platform of the U-District station. The giant slide thing will one day become an escalator, which will take riders to an upper level where a backdrop of back-lit metal panels, created by artist Leo Burke, will be arranged to represent the various geologic formations the line passes through on its way downtown.
Weeeeeeee!
The U-District station will be Sound Transit's terminus for five years, as work on Northgate station continues.
The rectangular excavation site between Capitol Hill and the University District is large enough to hold the Space Need laid on its side.
Work on the U-District station began two years ago. Work on the university's new stadium, right next door to the station, began one year ago. I asked if the two construction crews ever rumble. "HAHAHA, no," someone replied.
Sound Transit expects its first shipment of rail segments to arrive from Indiana in February. The segments, each 60 feet in length, will be lowered down into the Capitol Hill station and welded together on site. From there, workers will "charge the tunnels" with the sticks of rail.
We're talking about two miles of rail running at a four percent grade from Capitol Hill to the U-District. I asked if it would be possible to "bomb the hole" (I think I made that up) on a skateboard before the line was finished. "HAHAHA, no," someone replied.
Here is an ominous, half-covered sign.
Here is a leak. The rolls of plastic-looking wallpaper you can see hanging in the background are the station's waterproofing agent because the station sits well below the water table. Those pipes funnel the leaking water into drainage ditches that shoot it right back out.
Here's a man, doing his thing. Charge the hole! CHARGE THE HOLE!!!
Fin.
All photos Kelly O
3
sigh. the max number of riders at this station isn't the same as the projected number.
while this station is a positive step and should be there, it's too bad that we combined the expense of a subway (with massive underground station, and tunnel) with the limited limitations of partly at grade (slower trains, as they run in the street; limited capacity as they can't be as long as subway trains; capacity so limited the tunnel capacity is maxed out with the line going north, and we can't add any other lines into that tunnel.....precluding a real system).
oh wait, you can't criticize any transit prpoject we must bow down and adulate all decisions, like sounder north, woo hoo!
while this station is a positive step and should be there, it's too bad that we combined the expense of a subway (with massive underground station, and tunnel) with the limited limitations of partly at grade (slower trains, as they run in the street; limited capacity as they can't be as long as subway trains; capacity so limited the tunnel capacity is maxed out with the line going north, and we can't add any other lines into that tunnel.....precluding a real system).
oh wait, you can't criticize any transit prpoject we must bow down and adulate all decisions, like sounder north, woo hoo!
4
These are great pictures. I believe the official name for this station is "University of Washington Station." U-District would probably be a better name for the forthcoming Brooklyn station, which is present in the commercial core of the U-District rather than right by Husky Stadium.
6
Bummer that you didn't get a peek inside the tunnels. Next time, ask, "so if this leak pumping system were to shut down, how long would it take for the entire station to fill with water?"
Great post, though. I'm always interested in seeing more details of this underground shit being constructed.
Great post, though. I'm always interested in seeing more details of this underground shit being constructed.
7
He SAYS you can't "bomb the hole," but I bet it's physically possible. They just won't let you, because they're no fun.
8
@4, thank you for clarifying that. Why Sound Transit would tell Paul this is the U District station is beyond me. The actual U District station will be the Brooklyn one, expected to open in 2020 or 2021. In the interim four years between Stadium station opening and Brooklyn station opening I believe frequent shuttles will run people from here to the actual U-District.
9
This thing passed underneath Seattle. Like science fiction. http://www.flickr.com/photos/startsoundt…
10
Oops - my saying Paul wrote this is as wrong as Sound Transit saying the Montlake stadium is in the U District.
11
It might take six minutes to get to this station from downtown, but once you get there, where are you? More or less nowhere. Husky Stadium is right there, and University Hospital, which admittedly is a major employment center, is close by, but anywhere else on campus is quite a trek. Even the engineering departments are going to take longer to walk to than the trains will take to get between downtown and this nowhere station.
In five years you'll be able to get to Brooklyn Station, which is nice, but it's not on campus, either.
It seems clear that UW didn't want useful light rail to campus, but why they didn't want it I cannot guess. Maybe the same reason there are virtually no bicycle facilities on campus?
It's unfixable, though.
In five years you'll be able to get to Brooklyn Station, which is nice, but it's not on campus, either.
It seems clear that UW didn't want useful light rail to campus, but why they didn't want it I cannot guess. Maybe the same reason there are virtually no bicycle facilities on campus?
It's unfixable, though.
12
I wonder how much faster our buses would be if we sank ever more of them down into the tunnels, bypassing the surface streets.
15
@11: Well, gee, a 10-15 minute brisk exercise for students and faculty for a six minute ride downtown... so what?
17
It's a bit disappointing that it's been 12 hours since the post appeared and there hasn't been a correction to the station name. I guess that will never never.
"U District Station" is the name of the station that will be at 45th and Brooklyn. Originally the Link people were going to call it "Brooklyn Station" but there was a big stink over that name and thankfully residents convinced them to change it to U District Station. (Some people weren't happy with the change though - too them it's too close in sound to "University Street Station", but supposedly University Street Station may be renamed in a few years.
"University of Washington Station" is the one featured in these photos.
Also..., saying "The U-District station will be Sound Transit's terminus for five years, as work on Northgate station continues" implies that they're just waiting for the Northgate station to be completed. That ignores the Roosevelt and U District stations (and all the tunneling between the stations). Since Northgate will be elevated, it's possible that station will be completed before the other two, but I haven't really looked at the scheduling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Link
"U District Station" is the name of the station that will be at 45th and Brooklyn. Originally the Link people were going to call it "Brooklyn Station" but there was a big stink over that name and thankfully residents convinced them to change it to U District Station. (Some people weren't happy with the change though - too them it's too close in sound to "University Street Station", but supposedly University Street Station may be renamed in a few years.
"University of Washington Station" is the one featured in these photos.
Also..., saying "The U-District station will be Sound Transit's terminus for five years, as work on Northgate station continues" implies that they're just waiting for the Northgate station to be completed. That ignores the Roosevelt and U District stations (and all the tunneling between the stations). Since Northgate will be elevated, it's possible that station will be completed before the other two, but I haven't really looked at the scheduling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Link
19
Also...
"preparing to descend 900 feet down into the belly button of the earth"
As pointed out by a commenter on seattletransitblog.com, that number is way off. It's about 9 stories down (about 120 feet or so). (By comparison, the Beacon Hill station platform is about 160 feet deep.)
"preparing to descend 900 feet down into the belly button of the earth"
As pointed out by a commenter on seattletransitblog.com, that number is way off. It's about 9 stories down (about 120 feet or so). (By comparison, the Beacon Hill station platform is about 160 feet deep.)
20
Let's see. 3+ years till opening. what are he odds metro and ST will coordinate bus service to the station by then...
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