King County Metro Transit operates 14 electric trolley routes that run on more than 70 miles of two-way overhead wire throughout downtown Seattle, Ballard, Queen Anne, the University District, Capitol Hill, First Hill, Beacon Hill and the Rainier Valley.

These trolleys are the backbone of the transit system in Seattle, where electric buses are popular in high-density neighborhoods because they are quiet and clean.

It’s also a trolley system that’s rolling more efficiently and cost effectively thanks to two major upgrades in the past 18 months. Metro mechanics rebuilt the bulk of the trolley motors last year, and installed them into brand new coaches along with upgraded electronic drives.

Then last month, Metro’s Design and Construction and Power Distribution units put the finishing touches on a new electrical substation for the downtown routes that has brought the trolleys’ power transmission system into the 21^st Century.

The downtown trolleys have been connected to a substation in the old City Light building for more than 60 years. When Metro’s lease on that location expired, it was the impetus to build a state-of-the-art electric substation at Sixth Avenue and Columbia Street. The substation is small building with electrical equipment that converts the incoming AC (alternating current) power into the DC (direct current) power used by trolleys.

"What we had in the old Central Substation were the last remaining pieces of the old Seattle Transit system from the 1940s," said Project Manager Jim Murray. "It was still dependable, but so old that we had to manufacture our own parts for it.

It took almost two years to complete the substation project, because of a complicated rerouting of the main power supply from the old location to the new one. While the trolleys get their juice from overhead wires, the electricity to the system is fed from the Metro substation via conduits that travel underneath busy Seattle streets.

Metro’s contractors had to go 16 to 17 feet beneath the surface of the street to avoid other utilities – including sewer lines from the 1800s and fiber optic cables from this century.

For the new substation, it took an underground duct bank of 24 conduits, each four inches in diameter, to make the new connection. The total electrical supply to the substation equals three megawatts – about 1,000 times the power supplied to most homes.

This is one of those behind-the-scenes efforts that is extremely important to Metro operations, but almost invisible to its customers. Yet, that seamless transition from the old substation to the new is one of the marks of success for this project.

"What the customers don’t see is the increased efficiency that provides a new level of system reliability and safety that we didn’t have before," said Corey Traylor of Power Distribution. "We have new equipment that operates more efficiently, faster, and senses problems more quickly – all of which reduces trolley power outages and saves money on maintenance."

The legendary plane touched down to become part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Flight. KCIA staff was on hand to help with the crowds and traffic, and helped plan the logistics of landing the big bird – which set a new record for New York to Seattle air travel time.

The landing of the Concorde was just one more milestone in a special year for KCIA, which includes the airport’s own 75^th Anniversary and the 100^th Anniversary of manned flight to be celebrated in December.

With several nights of below-freezing temperatures in the outlying areas, road maintenance crews have been on patrol looking for hazardous driving areas. When they find them, they use sand and other anti-icing materials to clear up the roadways in time for the morning commute.

In most areas of unincorporated King County, the division has the ability to move to 24-hour staffing when the weather turns bad. This speeds up the response when roads and motorists are endangered by falling trees, rising floodwaters, or icy weather.