Seattle Tunnel Machine Bertha is Just Days from Breaking Through to Complete Long Journey

GeekWire | Kurt Schlosser | March 28

http://www.geekwire.com/2017/seattle-tunnel-machine-bertha-just-days-breaking-complete-long-journey/

“If you’ve forgotten what Bertha, the SR 99 tunneling machine, looks like after all these years, get ready to see her face again soon. Bertha’s massive cutterhead is just days away from reaching the end of the 9,270-foot journey that has taken the machine beneath Seattle in a multi-year quest to build a new underground highway and replace the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct. On Monday, the Twitter feed associated with the machine announced that it was just 219 feet from reaching the final wall at the north portal. It is here that Bertha will emerge into a seven-story-deep pit, thus completing her boring operations and beginning the process of being disassembled.”

 

Seattle Remains Nation’s Hottest Home Market, With Biggest Price Growth in 3 Years

Seattle Times | Mike Rosenberg | March 28

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-remains-nations-hottest-home-market-with-biggest-price-growth-in-3-years/

“For the fifth straight month, Greater Seattle has registered the sharpest home-price increases of any major market in the country, as home costs soared at their fastest pace in three years. The typical price of a home across King, Snohomish and Pierce counties rose 11.3 percent in January compared to a year prior, according to the monthly Case-Shiller home price index, released Tuesday. The Seattle region has taken the top spot in the national rankings in every month since September, and price growth has only been speeding up as of late after it dipped slightly toward the end of 2016. The increase in January is tied for the biggest jump in home prices since March 2014.”

 

Take A Tour of the Future U District Light Rail Station

Puget Sound Business Journal | Marc Stiles | March 24

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/03/24/tour-future-u-district-light-rail-station-seattle.html

“The Sound Transit board on Thursday awarded a $159.8 million contract to Hoffman Construction Co. to build the U District light rail station finishes. The contract includes constructing civil, structural and architectural finishes for the underground station that will have entrances on Brooklyn Avenue Northeast between Northeast 43rd and 45th streets. The station is part of the $1.9 billion Northgate Link project, which extends light rail 4.3 miles from the University of Washington station at Husky Stadium to Northgate Mall. When the extension opens in 2021, rides from U District Station to downtown Seattle will take eight minutes, and Northgate will be five minutes away.”

 

Census Bureau: Seattle-King County Scores Nation’s 4th Highest Population Gain

KOMO | Komo Staff | March 24

http://komonews.com/news/local/census-bureau-seattle-king-county-scores-nations-4th-highest-population-gain

“King County, including the city of Seattle, had the fourth-highest population increase in the country from 2015 to 2016, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.The data showed that King County gained about 36,000 more residents between July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016. Some 15,500 new residents migrated to the area from other countries, while 8,511 moved here from other locations inside the United States…King County’s total population at the end of the period was 2,149,970.”