[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 200 (Tuesday, October 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63413-63415]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-25414]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Early Scoping Notification for the Alternatives Analysis of the
Federal Way Transit Extension From SeaTac to Federal Way, WA
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.
ACTION: Notification of early scoping meetings.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Central Puget
Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) issue this early
scoping notice to advise other agencies and the public that they intend
to explore potential alternatives for improving public transit service
between the cities of SeaTac and Federal Way in King County, Washington
to improve connections to the regional transit system and major
activity centers.
The early scoping notice is intended to invite public comments on
the scope of the alternatives analysis study, including the project's
purpose and need, transportation problems to be addressed, the range of
alternatives, the transportation and community impacts and benefits to
be considered, the capital and operating costs, and other factors that
the public and agencies believe should be considered in analyzing the
alternatives. If preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS)
is warranted following the completion of the alternatives analysis,
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a notice of intent to prepare an EIS will be published.
The early scoping process is intended to support the alternatives
analysis and a future National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) scoping
process, as appropriate. In addition, it supports FTA planning
requirements associated with the New Starts (``Section 5309'') funding
program for certain kinds of major capital investments. While recent
legislation may lead to changes in the New Starts process, Sound
Transit will comply with relevant FTA requirements relating to planning
and project development to help it analyze and screen alternatives in
preparation for the NEPA process.
Public meeting times and locations are described immediately below.
Following that is a more detailed discussion of the project and the
early scoping process.
DATES: Two public scoping meetings and one tribal/agency scoping
meeting will be held at the following times and locations:
1. November 8, 2012, 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Highline Community
College, Building 2, 2400 S. 240th Street, Des Moines, WA 98198.
2. November 13, 2012, 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Harry S. Truman High
School, Gymnasium, 31455 28th Avenue, Federal Way, WA 98003.
3. (Agency and Tribal Meeting), November 7, 2012, 2:00 p.m. to 3:00
p.m.
The agency and tribal meeting will be conducted in a webinar
format, accessible via the internet and by teleconference. Invitations
to the on-line agency scoping meeting and the public scoping meetings
will be sent to the appropriate federal, tribal, state, and local
governmental units. Invitations will include details on how to
participate in the on-line meeting.
Supplemental information about the project is provided below. Also,
Sound Transit will provide information on the alternatives analysis at
the public meetings, along with opportunities for spoken or written
comments. Additional information is available on Sound Transit's Web
site at: http://www.soundtransit.org/FWextension. Written scoping
comments are requested by November 19, 2012 and can be sent or emailed
to the address below, submitted at the public meetings, or provided at
the Web site address above.
ADDRESSES: Federal Way Transit Extension (c/o Kent Hale, Senior
Environmental Planner), Sound Transit, 401 S. Jackson Street, Seattle,
WA 98104-2826, or by email to [email protected].
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: J. Steve Saxton, Transportation
Program Specialist, FTA Region 10, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Early Scoping. Early scoping is intended to generate public
comments on the scope of a planning effort called ``alternatives
analysis.'' The alternatives analysis lets an agency evaluate the
costs, benefits, and impacts of a range of transportation alternatives
designed to address mobility problems and other locally identified
objectives in a defined transportation corridor, and helps the agency
determine which particular investment strategy should receive more
focused study and development. Early scoping for the Federal Way
Transit Extension is being conducted in support of NEPA requirements
and in accordance with the Council on Environmental Quality's and FTA's
regulations and guidance for implementing NEPA (40 CFR 1501.2 through 8
and 23 CFR 771.111), which encourage federal agencies to initiate NEPA
early in their planning processes. Early scoping allows the scoping
process to begin as soon as there is enough information to describe the
proposal so that the public and relevant agencies can participate
effectively. This is particularly useful in situations when a proposed
action involves a broadly defined corridor with an array of alignment
alternatives under consideration. This early scoping notice invites the
public to comment on the scope of the planning alternatives analysis,
including (a) the purpose and need for the project, (b) the range of
alternatives to study, and (c) the environmental, transportation and
community impacts and benefits to consider.
The Federal Way Transit Extension and the Regional Transit System.
The Federal Way Transit Extension corridor is approximately 7.6 miles
long and extends from the future S. 200th Street Link light rail
station in SeaTac to the Federal Way Transit Center. It parallels State
Route 99 (SR 99) and Interstate 5 (I-5) and generally follows a
topographic ridge between Puget Sound and the Green River Valley where
the city limits of SeaTac, Des Moines, Kent, and Federal Way meet.
Sound Move, the first phase of regional transit investments, was
approved and funded by voters in 1996. Sound Transit is now completing
its implementation. It includes light rail, commuter rail and regional
express bus infrastructure and service, including the Central Link
light rail system. In 2009, Sound Transit began light rail operations
between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport, and an extension to the
University of Washington is under construction and scheduled to open in
2016.
In 2004, Sound Transit began planning for the next phase of
investment to follow Sound Move. This work included updating Sound
Transit's Long-Range Plan and associated environmental review. After
several years of Sound Transit system planning work, voters in 2008
authorized funding to extend light rail south to Federal Way as part of
the Sound Transit 2 (ST2) Plan. Link light rail south from Sea-Tac
Airport to S. 200th Street is now under construction and is scheduled
to open in 2016. The ST2 Plan also extends light rail from downtown
Seattle east to Bellevue and Redmond, and from the University of
Washington north to Northgate and Lynnwood.
The Purpose of and Need for the Federal Way Transit Extension. The
purposes of the project are to:
Provide a reliable and efficient two-way, peak and off-
peak transit service of sufficient capacity to meet the projected
demand between the communities and activity centers between the cities
of SeaTac and Federal Way and the other urban centers in the Central
Puget Sound area;
Provide a mobility alternative to travel on congested
roadways and improve connections to the Central Puget Sound regional
multimodal transportation system;
Support South King County communities and the region's
adopted vision for land use, transportation and economic development, a
vision that promotes the well-being of people and communities, ensures
economic vitality and preserves a healthy environment;
Support the long-range vision, goals, and objectives for
transit service established by Sound Transit's Regional Transit Long-
Range Plan for high quality regional transit service between Seattle
and Tacoma.
The project is needed to:
Meet the growing needs of the corridor and of the region's
future residents and workers by increasing mobility, access, and
transportation capacity connecting regional growth and activity centers
in the study area and the rest of the region, as called for in the
region's adopted plans, including the PSRC's VISION 2040 and
Transportation 2040, as well as related county and city comprehensive
plans;
Address the problems of increasing and unreliable travel
times for transit users in the study area, who are now
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dependent on the corridor's highly congested roadway and HOV systems;
Provide an alternative to automobile trips on I-5 and SR
99, the two primary highways serving the corridor, which provide
unreliable travel times throughout the day;
Help implement Sound Transit's Regional Transit Long-Range
Plan and allow the future extension of HCT south to Tacoma;
Expand and enhance transit options serving transit-
dependent residents and low-income and minority populations
concentrated in the study area;
Provide the transit infrastructure needed to support
SeaTac and Federal Way, two designated regional growth centers that
provide housing, employment, public services, and multimodal
transportation connections;
Help the state and region reduce transportation-related
energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, consistent with goals
established in RCW 47.01.440, and Chapter 70.235 RCW.
Potential Alternatives. Previous planning work for the ST2 Plan
examined conceptual light rail alignments between SeaTac and Federal
Way along portions of SR 99 and I-5 to help develop cost estimates and
establish ridership potential for transit improvements in the project
corridor. General station locations near Highline Community College,
Redondo/Star Lake park-and-ride lots, and the Federal Way Transit
Center were identified. Sound Transit invites comments on the
alternative transit alignments, and station locations to be studied,
and on the proposed evaluation framework and criteria to be used to
compare alternatives.
As part of this alternatives analysis, Sound Transit will explore
alternative alignment, station, and design configurations that could
meet the project's purpose and need. Alternatives could include
alternatives on SR 99 or I-5, or other alternatives that arise during
the early scoping comment period. The alternatives will reflect a range
of high- and low-cost capital improvements, including a ``no-build''
alternative which can serve as a ``baseline'' for measuring the merits
of higher level investments. Sound Transit will identify measures for
evaluating the relative merits of alternatives, and technical
methodologies for generating the information used to support such
measures. These measures typically include disciplines such as travel
forecasting, capital and operations and maintenance costs, and
corridor-level environmental and land use analyses.
At the end of the alternatives analysis process, Sound Transit and
the FTA anticipate narrowing the range of alternatives for further
evaluation in a NEPA document. If the resulting range of alternatives
involves the potential for significant environmental impacts requiring
an environmental impact statement (EIS), FTA and Sound Transit will
publish a Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS in the Federal Register,
and invite public and agency comment on the scope of the EIS at that
time.
Issued on: October 10, 2012.
Richard Krochalis,
Regional Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2012-25414 Filed 10-15-12; 8:45 am]
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