They started taking down the big blue wall around the light rail construction site today! They removed a few segments at 17th and Lander — right where Lander St. used to go through.
The end of the seemingly endless Beacon Hill Station construction project is in sight!
Lander Street is opening up? It must be June 2008!
Sweet! I hate blue walls.
John, the earliest sign I saw said : CLOSED UNTIL APRIL 2007 ). Somehow, light rail thinks they are on schedule!
There is no good reason to take down the blue wall. It’s a mess in there. They should put it back.
I’m with Ash on this. I haven’t seen further progress taking down the blue wall since this was initially posted, but the photo shows that it is just replaced with chain link. If they took that section down to expedite the contractor demob, then go for it. Otherwise, I’d be happy if they kept the wall up until the station is nearly finished. I’d rather look at the ugly blue wall for another few months than hear the drone of equipment that the wall is intended to mitigate.
They have already told us that the wall is expected to come down in February or March (March now, I guess). So unless there has been a delay, it will be gone soon. It will be gone well before the station opens, because work needs to be done on the site that the wall would interfere with.
I drove by there at about 9am and it looks like they are in serious demobilization mode. And, as the gas leak story confirms, the network of H-piles holding up the wall is a pretty serious structure that will take some effort and time to remove. The next month or so should be quite active around the site. I just wish Sound Transit would enforce the contractors’ use of the El Centro site for parking rather than them parking on the streets and sidewalks.
Relax everyone, the WALL IS BACK UP! Progress, huh? And yes, the parking is dangerous, illegal, and hypocritical, since their own lazy contractors park illegally where the city and citizens have forced that to place no parking signs. You would not believe to the complete disregard for playing by their own rules on this one. I see this everyday, all hours of the night.