Mercer Island Station Design

Overview

Located in the center roadway of I-90, riders will enter at 77th Avenue SE and 80th Avenue SE, in close proximity to the existing Mercer Island Park-and-Ride lot. The majority of the station will be down at highway level, with headhouses (elevators, stairs) up at street level. The station addresses the City of Mercer Island's goals of promoting mixed-use development in the Town Center, and will include safe bicycle and pedestrian access, secure bicycle parking, passenger drop-off areas, and nearby connecting bus service. Construction of the station itself is expected to take approximately 2 years, starting June 2017.

View Sound Transit construction PHOTOS

Subscribe to Sound Transit's Emailed construction updates
Sounds Transit's construction hotline is (206) 398-5465
[After normal business hours, the 24-hour hotline is 1-888-298-2395]

Contact Sound Transit outreach staff for more information or to tour other, existing stations:
Zack Ambrose, Community Outreach Specialist at Zack.Ambrose@soundtransit.org

Public Outreach

30% Design
The first major meeting on station design occurred on June 6, 2013, at the Mercer Island Community Center, where Sound Transit presented initial design concepts, and invited public feedback. Promotion included local advertising, posters, Email announcements, and a large postcard mailed to every Mercer Island residential and business address.

• View the 30% design presentation here (Note: Images are preliminary)
• View a summary of public comments received on the 30% design

60% Design
At a public outreach meeting on station design held July 10, 2014 at the Mercer Island Community Center, Sound Transit presented the latest 60% design concepts, including public art components. Sound Transit collected various comments and public feedback on its design ideas to consider for the final design. Promotion included local advertising, newspaper coverage, posters, Email announcements, field teams contacting the public, a large postcard mailed to 15,000 Mercer Island residents, as well as E-newsletter and social media outreach by the City.

• View the 60% design presentation here (Note: Images are preliminary)
• View a summary of the public comments received on the 60% design
• A well-attended community meeting on potential commuter parking and future bus-rail interconnections, held November 19, 2014, also included supplementary material about station design. View a summary of the public comments received.

Completion of Final Design (90%+)
On December 6, 2016, Sound Transit released its final design to the public in a 9-minute online narrated presentation, which includes contact information.

• View the final design presentation here (link no longer available)
• On July 12, 2017, Sound Transit held its customary "Meet the Contractor" outreach open house; view all meeting materials here

Mercer Island Advisory Group (MIAG)

The MIAG is an advisory group appointed by the Mayor and composed of three City Councilmembers, three members of the Mercer Island Arts Council, and three members of the Mercer Island Design Commission.  As with other communities where rail stations are on WSDOT property, not City property, Sound Transit invited the City to convene an advisory group to represent the community and provide general feedback and guidance regarding the proposed station design and art work. 

In addition to the input provided by the MIAG, Sound Transit also invites, and attempts to include, design feedback from the community (see public comment links in the Public Outreach section above). While the City’s legal department determined that the City does not have regulatory authority over the Mercer Island Station design, the MIAG has provided important input and feedback to support the interests and design sensibilities of the community at large.

The MIAG first gathered in 2014 to respond to early Sound Transit station designs.

In late October 2016, Sound Transit presented a draft of its near-final station design to the MIAG for feedback.  Based on previous MIAG input, and extensive public comment, revisions to the near-final design include (see example image below):

• Changes to the entrances at both 77th Avenue SE and 80th Avenue SE
• Changes to the color of the ventilation stacks
• Extended canopy over the station platform
• Station landscaping
• Screening and landscaping for support structures

Note: On December 6, 2016, Sound Transit released its final design to the public in a narrated presentation online (9 minutes long) - the presentation includes contact information (link no longer available).

Visit Sound Transit's Mercer Island Station webpage here.