Mayor Harrell will issue an Executive Order this week to support faster delivery of light rail expansion to West Seattle and Ballard. The mayor will propose legislation that could speed up delivery by more than a year and the City will create the Office of Waterfront, Civic Projects & Sound Transit, which will orchestrate up to 50 staff in supporting project design and engineering, station area planning, and more.

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A quick look at the summary provided by the mayor’s office yielded this point of interest:

Expediting light rail expansion: Mayor Harrell will issue an Executive Order this week to support faster delivery of light rail expansion to West Seattle and Ballard. The mayor will propose legislation that could speed up delivery by more than a year and the City will create the Office of Waterfront, Civic Projects & Sound Transit, which will orchestrate up to 50 staff in supporting project design and engineering, station area planning, and more.

We subsequently asked mayoral spokesperson Callie Craighead for details, and she said those would be forthcoming in a few days: “We will be announcing the Sound Transit Executive Order later this week, so more to come on that.” The “prepared remarks” version of his speech used this verbiage:

Growing our transit network with fast, reliable service is one of my highest priorities, and Sound Transit 3 is the largest transit expansion in the country. That’s why, this week, I will issue an Executive Order to make sure the City of Seattle is taking immediate action to safely and efficiently expedite delivery of light rail to West Seattle and Ballard.

Our efforts will include a newly expanded Office of Waterfront, Civic Projects & Sound Transit, led by Director Angela Brady, which will be at the center of orchestrating a surge in staff of up to 50 City employees supporting project design and engineering, station area planning, and more.

We will propose new pieces of legislation to ease the permitting process – maintaining essential safety protections while reducing burdens and barriers to shorten project schedules. This work could save more than a year of project time.

Our region is clamoring for light rail expansion – this Executive Order represents the City’s pledge to do our part to get it done as quickly as possible.

Currently, the West Seattle expansion is projected for completion late in 2032, but there are myriad milestones to achieve first, not the least of which is funding, including federal dollars.