UW light rail station to close for weekend and I-5 nearby will lose a lane

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Light rail trips under the University of Washington will be two minutes quicker next week, after Sound Transit replaces a damaged train-power wire.

But first, travelers must endure a weekend closure of UW Station, next to Husky Stadium, during all of Saturday, Feb. 1, and Sunday, Feb. 2, along with an unrelated one-lane reduction to I-5 nearby.

All other stations will remain open, with trains every 12 minutes between Lynnwood and U District, and every 15 minutes between Capitol Hill and Angle Lake. Shuttle buses will take passengers around the closure zone, between the U District and Capitol Hill stations.

On the road nearby, the right lane of southbound I-5 will shut down from 10 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday, while noise-blocking walls as high as 36 feet are added near Boylston Avenue East, part of a $6.6 million retrofit protecting the Eastlake neighborhood. That lane reduction may compound the strains of curtailed train service nearby.

For the light rail repair, contractors will replace a half-mile segment of the northbound catenary wire, which transmits electricity to railcars from above, through a triangular part on the train roof called a pantograph. In mid-September, a bent pantograph damaged the wire just south of the UW Station platform, transit executives said. Sound Transit hasn’t pinpointed why or where the pantograph damage originated.

Since then, every northbound train has slowed to a crawl entering and leaving UW Station, adding two minutes per ride, as Sound Transit avoided its risk of worse wire damage.

UW Station closed for weekend

The light rail stop, next to Husky Stadium, will shut down for replacement of a damaged power wire. Shuttle buses will go between U District and Capitol Hill stations.

Sources: Esri, Sound Transit (Reporting by Mike Lindblom, map by Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times)

CEO Goran Sparrman has also said downtown tunnel power lines are too loose after 16 years of use, requiring future adjustments and possible disruptions, but that’s a separate job from UW Station.

Coming up, the Westlake, Symphony, Pioneer Square, International District/Chinatown and Stadium stations will close for the Feb. 15-16 and Feb. 22-23 weekends, as crews wrap up electric and signal connections between the Seattle 1 Line and the Eastside 2 line — to be extended across I-90 next winter, from South Bellevue Station to International District/Chinatown Station.

The rush was on to complete work before the Washington State Department of Transportation closes two I-5 lanes starting March 1 for months of major deck repairs, creating pressure on light rail and other alternatives. WSDOT suddenly decided to postpone the I-5 job, but Sound Transit is keeping to its February timeline.

Transit spokesperson John Gallagher explained that with crews ready for work, relief buses lined up and the public alerted through online and in-station notices, it makes sense to forge ahead with three weekend closures in February, a relatively low ridership month. The 1 Line serves just about 100,000 passengers on busy days, while UW Station alone draws between 4,000 and 6,000 boardings, influenced by stadium events.