Seattle light rail linked to deaths of 2,000 fish in Lake Washington five months after opening

When Sound Transit launched light rail service across the I-90 floating bridge in March 2026, it was celebrated as a major milestone for Seattle’s transit network. For the first time, trains connected downtown Seattle to the Eastside over Lake Washington, promising faster commutes and reduced traffic. Five months later, that success story has been complicated by an unexpected environmental problem. Around 2,000 fish have been found dead near electrical cables and equipment that hang beneath the bridge into the lake. As reported by Axios Seattle, the deaths have raised concerns among biologists, regulators and local residents about how transit infrastructure interacts with one of the region’s most important bodies of water.A new rail line over a sensitive lakeThe I-90 floating bridge is an engineering marvel, a series of concrete pontoons tethered across Lake Washington that carry one of the busiest highways in the Pacific Northwest. When Sound Transit added a light rail line to the bridge, it required new electrical systems to power the trains. Some of that equipment, including cables and related hardware, extends below the bridge deck into the lake.Lake Washington is home to a var...