Northgate Transit Center

Location and layout

Northgate Transit Center is located east of 1st Aveune NE between NE 103rd and NE 100th streets on the south side of Northgate Mall. It consists of 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) and includes a 284-stall park and ride that is supplemented by 728 additional spaces in surrounding lots. The transit center itself consists of six bus bays that serve a reverse-direction street for buses that is wide enough for layover space and passing lanes. The passenger waiting area is covered by large white canvases held aloft by steel towers. Various pieces of public artwork at the transit center were designed by Chris Bruch and cost $50,000 to install.

The transit center is also located directly east of Interstate 5 and is near an access ramp to the freeway's reversible express lanes.

The transit center features several amenities, including public bathrooms, pay phones, an ORCA card vending machine, bicycle parking, and a baby changing station.

History

The Northgate Transit Center opened on June 6, 1992, at a cost of $15.8 million to construct. It was planned in 1978, as part of King County Metro's "MetroTRANSITion" program, becoming the last of 11 transit centers built under the plan. The Northgate area was historically served by the Blue Streak express bus to downtown Seattle from 1970 onward, using a park and ride on the north side of the mall (closed in 2008 and converted into Hubbard Homestead Park). Construction began in 1990 with the demolition of a Group Health clinic and relocation of a segment of Thornton Creek.

The park and ride at the transit center initially consisted of the west lot, with 284 spaces, and was expanded twice in the 2000s. In 2001, the parking lot was expanded to 950 spaces after the $7.6 million purchase of 3.9 acres (1.6 ha) from Simon Property Group. The completion of Thornton Creek in April 2009 brought 350 additional parking spaces to be added to the transit center, mostly used to replace a 500-stall park and ride north of the mall.

Light rail

The Northgate Transit Center will become the terminus of the Link Light Rail system in 2021, with the completion of the $1.9 billion Northgate Link Extension project. The 4.3-mile-long (6.9 km) light rail line will extend light rail north from University of Washington station to Northgate via a tunnel and two stations at U District and Roosevelt.

The Northgate area had been considered in several rapid transit studies in the late 20th century as a suitable terminus or major station. The Northgate Link project was proposed as part of the "Sound Move" ballot measure in 1996, pending additional funding, but was deferred until the voter approval of the Sound Transit 2 package in 2008.

Construction of the light rail extension began in 2012 and will be completed in 2021. Construction on the station began in 2016 and will be completed in 2020; a $174 million contract was awarded to Absher Construction in August 2016 to build the station and approaching elevated guideway. On January 13, 2017, Sound Transit broke ground on the station, beginning construction with the demolition of two parking lots.

The Northgate light rail station will be elevated 25 to 45 feet (7.6 to 13.7 m) above ground level, on the east side of 1st Avenue Northeast, spanning Northeast 103rd Street. It will have two entrances, one adjacent to the Northgate Mall at the corner of 1st Avenue NE and NE 103rd Street and another adjacent to the transit center. Beyond the station, a 400-foot (120 m) pocket track will be built to the north for train storage and reversal, as well as accommodating a future light rail extension to Lynnwood Transit Center, planned to be completed in 2023. Two pieces of public art, a glass painting on the platform level and a sculpture outside the south entrance, are planned to be included in the station's construction.

As part of the project, parking capacity at the transit center would be reduced by spaces eliminated for the station and a new bus station to the west of the current one. A partially below-grade parking garage will be built on the southwest corner of the Northgate Mall parking lot with 450 spaces.

Sound Transit estimates that the station will have 15,000 daily boardings by 2030.

Bus rapid transit

Northgate Transit Center is being planned as the terminus of two bus rapid transit lines under development by the Seattle Department of Transportation as part of the RapidRide+ program. The program was funded by the November 2015 "Move Seattle" levy and consists of seven corridors throughout the city of Seattle.

The Roosevelt to Downtown line, anticipated to open in 2021, will travel south along Roosevelt Way and Eastlake Avenue from Northgate through the Roosevelt, University District, Eastlake and South Lake Union neighborhoods. The Northgate/Fremont line, anticipated to open in 2022, will replace Metro bus route 40 and travel through the Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods toward Downtown Seattle.

Pedestrian bridge

A pedestrian bridge over Interstate 5 is planned to be built to improve walking access to North Seattle College and the Licton Springs neighborhood from the future light rail station.

The $20 million bridge was proposed in 2012, and designs were narrowed to two options: a tied-arch and a tube/truss; the latter won out.

Funding for the bridge remained incomplete during the planning process. In 2012, Sound Transit and the Seattle Department of Transportation each allocated $5 million to cover part of the $25 million cost, if the remainder could be funded by July 2015. A federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant application in October 2015 for $15 million was not approved, but two Seattle council members asked to have the July deadline removed. The Washington State Legislature approved $10 million in funding as part of the 2015 Transportation Improvements Budget. Full funding for the project was finally approved with the November 2015 passage of the "Move Seattle" property tax levy.

Transit-oriented development

As part of the anticipated extension of light rail to Northgate Transit Center, the area around Northgate Mall was identified by the city as an "urban village" in 1993, with heavy potential for transit-oriented development. In 2013, the Puget Sound Regional Council estimated that the ¹⁄₂-mile (0.80 km) buffer around the transit center had a population of 5,453 residents and 9,273 jobs. In 2007, the city rezoned the Northgate area to support an increased height limit of 125 feet (38 m).

In 2009, one of the mall's surface parking lots was converted into a mixed-use, transit-oriented development called "Thornton Place", with 109 condominiums, 278 apartments (including affordable units), a movie theater, and 50,000 square feet (4,600 m²) of retail space. The complex, which also includes a community park and a daylit section of Thornton Creek, was heralded as one of Seattle's first true transit-oriented developments.

The city of Seattle published an "urban design framework" for the Northgate area in 2013, outlining a vision for the redevelopment of the neighborhood into an urban center, based on the 1993 urban village designation. The report focused on maximizing transit-oriented development around the transit center and light rail station by building mixed-use infill development in the surface parking lots south of the mall with open spaces and plazas. The draft "Seattle 2035" comprehensive plan, written in 2015, anticipates at least 1,600 residential units and 6,000 jobs to be added to the Northgate area by 2035.

Services

As of March 2016, Northgate Transit Center is served by 12 bus routes from King County Metro. It is the primary hub for bus routes in northern Seattle, served by routes from the city of Shoreline, University District, Lake City, Fremont, and Downtown Seattle. Intercity express bus service to Bellevue and Issaquah is provided by two Sound Transit Express routes.

From 2000 to 2003, Sound Transit also operated express buses to Northgate from Everett in Snohomish County on routes 505 and 506.