BergerWorld: 3rd Quarter 2005

Seattle's new 30,000-foot McClellan Station acts as a key hub for the growing North Rainier Valley. The station is designed to draw users into the newly created town center while providing fast and efficient light rail travel throughout the Rainier Valley.

Under this $36 million project, Berger/ABAM was selected by Sound Transit to provide civil and structural designs for the guideway and station. To ensure that the new station did not compromise the charming character of the town, Berger/ABAM developed an innovative, more slender single-box-girder, long-span bridge design for the rail guideway, alleviating the need for several large straddle bents spanning Martin Luther King Jr. Way, one of the area's main routes.

During the preliminary design stage, the Berger/ABAM team faced a number of technical challenges. Because Seattle is located within the Western Rainier fault zone, Berger/ABAM engineers conducted detailed structural analysis for a 100-year earthquake and a massive 2,500-year earthquake event. The Team also conducted a complex analysis of the nonlinear rail/structure interaction that results from changing temperatures along the continuously welded rails which are attached to the concrete structure and incorporated these analyses into the final station design. McClellan Station will open to passengers in 2006, providing residents with a state-of-the-art transit and community hub.