Light Rail over I-90 Bridge Wins Popular Science Awards for World Engineering First

Seattle Times | The Associated Press | October 18

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/light-rail-over-i-90-bridge-wins-popular-science-award-for-worlds-engineering-first/

“Sound Transit has received a Popular Science 2017 “Best of What’s New” award in the engineering category for its plan to run light-rail trains across the Interstate 90 floating bridge. The East Link project across Lake Washington is slated to open in 2023. Building light rail across a floating bridge is a world’s-first achievement. Sound Transit says it’s made possible by innovative engineering to create a track bridge that will compensate for six ranges of lake motion.”

Seattle Bike Shares Show No Signs of Slowing as LimeBike and Spin Expand to 3,000 Bicycles Each

GeekWire | Monica Nickelsburg | October 16

https://www.geekwire.com/2017/seattle-bike-shares-show-no-signs-slowing-limebike-spin-expand-3000-bicycles/

“Spin Bike and LimeBike are expanding their Seattle fleets to 3,000 each. When we last checked in with the dockless bicycle sharing companies, they were operating about 2,000 a piece…The Emerald City has become inundated with bright orange, green, and yellow bicycles since the Seattle Department of Transportation created a new permit for the services earlier this year. The deluge has led some to speculate that Seattle’s dockless bike share market is oversaturated and others to dump the bikes in some creative parking spaces.”

With Expansion, Washington State Convention Center Agrees to Provide More Than $80 Million in Public Benefits

Seattle Times | Daniel Beekman | October 16

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/with-expansion-washington-state-convention-center-agrees-to-provide-more-than-80-million-in-public-benefits/

“The Washington State Convention Center has agreed to provide more than $80 million in public benefits as part of its planned $1.6 billion expansion in downtown Seattle, officials announced Monday. The $82.8 million agreement with a group of organizations calling itself the Community Package Coalition will include $29 million in funding for the city to help create affordable housing, $10 million for improvements to Freeway Park, $10 million for cycling improvements in the Pine Street-Pike street corridor and $10 million for pedestrian improvements in the corridor, the officials said…The Community Package Coalition, which includes First Hill Improvement Association, Capitol Hill Housing and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, began negotiating in January with the convention center and its development partner, Pine Street Group. The coalition’s leverage came partly from the convention center’s pending request that Seattle surrender some alleys and property under certain streets.”

State to Hear Presentation on I-5 Autonomous Lanes

KING 5 | Chris Daniels | October 16

http://www.king5.com/traffic/traffic-news/state-to-hear-presentation-on-i-5-autonomous-lanes/483843844

“The Washington State Transportation Commission will hear a new pitch for reducing congestion – building out autonomous vehicle lanes on Interstate 5. Bruce Agnew, director of the Cascadia Center Discovery Institute, will make the pitch in Olympia, following a study by his Seattle-based think tank. He believes the state could transition existing HOV lanes to handle autonomous vehicles within the next eight to 10 years and says it would be more cost effective than other ideas of the past. “Basically striping and the condition of the pavement, we need to make sure the pavement is ready for machine readable sensors, $10 million range for Interstate 5,” he said.”