[Federal Register: March 19, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 54)]
[Notices]
[Page 13060-13061]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr19mr04-62]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
[USCG-2003-15797]
Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Lake
Washington Ship Canal Bridge and Proposed Modification of the Duwamish
Waterway Bridge
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for public comments.
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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard announces the availability of a Final
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Seattle Monorail Project
``Green Line'' in Seattle, Washington. The Coast Guard and the Seattle
Monorail Project undertook the preparation of this Final EIS to satisfy
the requirements of both the National Environmental Policy Act and the
Washington State Environmental Policy Act for the proposed Green Line
monorail project.
DATES: Comments and related material must reach the Docket Management
Facility on or before April 19, 2004.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Coast Guard docket
number (USCG-2003-15797) to the Docket Management Facility at the U.S.
Department of Transportation. To avoid duplication, please use only one
of the following methods:
(1) Web site: http://dms.dot.gov.
(2) Mail: Docket Management Facility, (USCG-2003-15797), U.S.
Department of Transportation, room PL-401, 400 Seventh Street, SW.,
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
(3) Fax: 202-493-2251.
(4) Delivery: Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif
Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone
number is 202-366-9329.
The Docket Management Facility maintains the public docket for this
notice. Comments and material received from the public, as well as the
Final EIS, will become part of this docket and will be available for
inspection or copying at room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif
Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. You may also find
this docket, including the EIS, on the Internet at http://dms.dot.gov.
Copies of the Final EIS are also available for inspection at the
offices of the Seattle Monorail Project, 1904 Third Avenue, Suite 105,
Seattle, WA 98191 (telephone (206) 328-1220), and are available at the
City of Seattle public libraries, and at the U.S. Coast Guard Bridge
Section, Commander (oan), Thirteenth Coast Guard District, 915 Second
Avenue, Room 3510, Seattle, WA 98174-1067.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice,
the proposed project, or the associated EIS, call Mr. Austin Pratt,
Coast Guard, telephone (206) 220-7282. You may also request information
from Helene Kornblatt, Seattle Monorail Project, telephone (206) 587-
1743. If you have questions about viewing or submitting material to the
docket, call Andrea M. Jenkins, Program Manager, Docket Operations,
telephone 202-366-0271.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Request for Comments
We welcome comments on this Final EIS. With your comment, please
include your name and address, identify the docket number for this
notice (USCG-2003-15797), and give the reasons for each comment. You
may submit your comments and material by mail, hand delivery, fax, or
electronic means to the Docket Management Facility at the address under
ADDRESSES; but please submit your comments and material by only one
means. If you submit them by mail or hand delivery, submit them in an
unbound format, no larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for
copying and electronic filing. If you submit them by mail and would
like to know they reached the Facility, please enclose a stamped, self-
addressed postcard or envelope. We will consider all comments and
material received during the comment period.
Proposed Action
The Seattle Popular Monorail Authority (SPMA) proposes to build a
14-mile monorail (the Green Line) in Seattle, Washington to provide
transit service to a number of Seattle communities and destinations.
The SPMA proposed the Green Line in accordance with the Seattle
Citizens' Petition No. 1, which was passed by Seattle voters in
November 2002. In Petition No. 1, voters adopted the Seattle Popular
Monorail Plan, created the SPMA, required the SPMA to adopt and
implement the Seattle Popular Monorail Plan, and authorized funding for
the construction and operation of the Green Line as described in the
Plan.
The proposed Green Line would run from the Ballard neighborhood of
Seattle, through the Interbay and Ballard industrial areas, through
downtown Seattle, through the South Downtown (SODO) industrial area,
and then to the West Seattle neighborhood. The Green Line would connect
the urban neighborhoods in Ballard and West Seattle with the
industrial/manufacturing areas in the Interbay and SODO areas and with
the downtown urban core and central business district of the City of
Seattle.
The Green Line would use traditional monorail technology. The
automated electric train would consist of several linked train cars
running on rubber tires locked into an elevated guideway. The Green
Line would include a new bridge, crossing the Lake Washington Ship
Canal (near the existing Ballard Bridge), which would require both a
bridge permit from the Coast Guard and an environmental review pursuant
to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Green Line would
also cross the Duwamish Waterway on the existing West Seattle High-Rise
Bridge. This second crossing may also require a bridge permit from the
Coast Guard, depending on final design drawings. In order to evaluate
the indirect and cumulative environmental impacts of the Coast Guard's
bridge permit actions, the Coast Guard and the SPMA included the entire
14-mile Green Line proposal in the Final EIS.
Final Environmental Impact Statement
The Coast Guard and the Seattle Monorail Project undertook the
preparation of this Final EIS to satisfy the requirements of both the
NEPA and the Washington State Environmental Policy Act for the proposed
Green Line monorail project. The analysis for this EIS is divided into
six geographical segments: Ballard, Interbay/Magnolia, Queen Anne/
Seattle Center/Belltown, Downtown/Pioneer Square, SODO/Chinatown
International District/Pioneer Square, and West Seattle. Each segment
is then divided into multiple alignments, to include a preferred
alignment. The Final EIS examines in detail the alternative and
preferred alignments for each segment and a no action alternative.
Evaluation of the no action alternative, defined as the transportation
system and environment as they would exist without the Green Line,
provides a baseline for comparing the impacts associated with the
proposed action.
[[Page 13061]]
Dated: March 9, 2004.
N.E. Mpras,
Chief, Office of Bridge Administration, U.S. Coast Guard.
[FR Doc. 04-5916 Filed 3-18-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P