New Supercharger Permit in Seattle - Northgate Mall

[Araman0]

Or... you can get a dinosaur Model S like me

For my 2012 S85 from empty to full on an urban supercharger might actually take the better part of 2 hours as throttled down as the car is now. And best of all, that "slow" charge is free. Definitely enough time for a nice dinner.

 

[PLUS EV]

I forgot to post before, but I drove through much of the property with particular focus on the western garage where we think it will go and didn't see any sign of construction yet.

 

[acarney]

Looks like a new One Call, anyone able to tell if there are any changes? I'm thinking it's the parking structure near the Best Buy... it mentions 1st and Northgate as the intersection...

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[Araman0]

The GPS coordinates (Lat: 47.706271 Lon: -122.325925) are directly in the center of the mall property. So I'm guessing this is not the Best Buy parking structure. Likely one of the structures on the mall property.

 

[acarney]

The GPS coordinates (Lat: 47.706271 Lon: -122.325925) are directly in the center of the mall property. So I'm guessing this is not the Best Buy parking structure. Likely one of the structures on the mall property.

It's a bad description then...
Location of Work: ADD IS APX 100FT E OF ABV INTER. MARK AREA MARKED IN WHITE, FROM OUT SIDE OF PARKING STRUCTURE , GOING INTO STRUCTURE , APX 60 BY 300FT AREA AT ABV ADD.

The intersection listed is NE Northgate Way and 1st Ave NE. Northgateway runs along the best buy, 1st runs along the mall area. The best buy is likely further than 100 feet from this intersection, but it is "east" of the intersection...

It's across the street from what looks like a couple charge point chargers that were installed in the mall parking lot...

 

[Long Ranger]

It's a bad description then...
Location of Work: ADD IS APX 100FT E OF ABV INTER. MARK AREA MARKED IN WHITE, FROM OUT SIDE OF PARKING STRUCTURE , GOING INTO STRUCTURE , APX 60 BY 300FT AREA AT ABV ADD.

The intersection listed is NE Northgate Way and 1st Ave NE. Northgateway runs along the best buy, 1st runs along the mall area. The best buy is likely further than 100 feet from this intersection, but it is "east" of the intersection...

It's across the street from what looks like a couple charge point chargers that were installed in the mall parking lot...

OK, maybe a bad description in the One Call. As mentioned earlier in this thread, it's pretty clear from the permit documents that this is going into the NW corner of the West Northgate garage, not the lot near Best Buy. It's about 100 feet east of the intersection of 1st Ave NE and NE 107th St, so maybe that's what they meant.

 

[acarney]

OK, maybe a bad description in the One Call. As mentioned earlier in this thread, it's pretty clear from the permit documents that this is going into the NW corner of the West Northgate garage, not the lot near Best Buy. It's about 100 feet east of the intersection of 1st Ave NE and NE 107th St, so maybe that's what they meant.

I wonder if this poorly described One Call will require a correction if utilities marked the wrong spot, lol

 

[PLUS EV]

I'll try to check for any progress tomorrow afternoon. I'll be mostly focused on the West garage unless someone gives me good reason to look elsewhere.

 

[PLUS EV]

Not entirely sure this is supercharger related but the northwest corner of the lower level of the western garage is now taped off, and the adjacent area on the corner outside of the garage is also taped off with some disturbed soil (most likely just removal of some landscaping vegetation).

If this is where the supercharger is going, I would guess the transformer and/or cabinets would go on the corner outside the garage with conduit running to the stalls on the lower level.

The taped off area only contains 6 parking stalls but they are very awkwardly laid out and the area could easily hold 8 or 10 parking spaces if it were re-striped.

Another possibility is that this will be a large installation (IIRC the guy on the Ballard site told me 32 stalls), and the taped off area is only where the transformers, cabinets, switchgear, etc. will go and the stalls themselves will fill in most of the northern part of the lower level of the garage.

Apologies for the dark pics, I couldn’t make it before sunset.

 

[Long Ranger]

No question in my mind that’s the beginning of Supercharger construction. These photos are really consistent with the plan drawings that I posted in post #23 of this thread. The lower level inside the garage is just cabinets and switchgear. The transformer will be outside the garage in that corner with the ground disturbance. The permit documents even mention transplanting the little tree that used to be in that corner. The stalls will be on upper level along the west side. Should be 16 stalls, but it’s possible the number of stalls has changed.

 

[PLUS EV]

No question in my mind that’s the beginning of Supercharger construction. These photos are really consistent with the plan drawings that I posted in post #23 of this thread. The lower level inside the garage is just cabinets and switchgear. The transformer will be outside the garage in that corner with the ground disturbance. The permit documents even mention transplanting the little tree that used to be in that corner. The stalls will be on upper level along the west side. Should be 16 stalls, but it’s possible the number of stalls has changed.

Oh okay. I didn’t remember all those details. FWIW I did drive through the upper level as well and didn’t see anything. But it was dark, so it’s possible I missed something small like paint markings. It’s also possible that they will put stalls on both the top and bottom levels. Maybe 16 stalls on each level? I’ve seen multi-level superchargers in other states, though they are fairly rare.

EDIT: I just went back and looked at the photos you attached in post #23. I count 10 cabinets and 19 stalls, but there are still additional parking spaces off the bottom of the page, so my guess is a 20th stall will be down there. The 10 cabinets are pretty clear on both the main diagram and the blowup. This would be indicative of either urban or v2, but not v3. Urban would make the most sense, but the guy did tell me that Northgate would be "even faster" than what they are building in Ballard. Of course, since that conversation, they have torn out the v2 stalls in Ballard and I definitely suspect they are putting urban stalls in there, but really no idea what to think at this point as they've installed and torn out the v2 stalls twice now. Maybe the v2s were intended for the "even faster" supercharger at Northgate while Ballard will be urban. Who knows? We are speculating at this point, but it would be plausible that the contractor was in possession of those v2 bollards for a reason, and maybe they just installed them at the wrong place.

 

[Long Ranger]

I just went back and looked at the photos you attached in post #23. I count 10 cabinets and 19 stalls, but there are still additional parking spaces off the bottom of the page, so my guess is a 20th stall will be down there. The 10 cabinets are pretty clear on both the main diagram and the blowup. This would be indicative of either urban or v2, but not v3

I think that’s just because the drawing is old. The diagram I posted was from the original preliminary site plan. The later updates to that diagram aren’t available for public viewing. Based on what is viewable in the public permit revision letters, it looked like they revised it from 20 stalls to 16 and also made changes to accommodate V3. I can’t see the actual drawings to confirm exactly what is going in now, but it didn’t seem like there were any other major changes being proposed to the original plan.

 

[PLUS EV]

 

[PLUS EV]

This is kind of confusing. The first two pics are taken from inside the lower level. The 3rd pic is taken from the upper level looking down on the electrical area just outside the corner of the garage. The 4th pic is the corner of the upper level. Not sure what "IAG 533" means or if it's even related to the supercharger construction, but the paint looked somewhat fresh and it was the only thing notable up there.

Also of interest is that there are 6 conduits run through that board with holes for 2 more. So could be 16 v2s or 32 v3s which are both possibilities that have already been speculated.

 

[PLUS EV]

 

[PLUS EV]

^^^The above pics are from Thursday night.

Pic #1 shows a new concrete pad inside the lower level. I believe this will be where the cabinets are placed.

Pic #2 shows one of the cabinets. @mociaf9 or someone else more knowledgeable than me, does this confirm v3?

Pic #3 is taken from the upper level looking down on the electrical work that is outside the garage on the corner.

Still nothing of significance on the upper level.

@Chuq @MarcoRP this should be worthy of a construction cone. (also, see Ballard which is up and running now)

 

[mociaf9]

Pic #2 shows one of the cabinets. @mociaf9 or someone else more knowledgeable than me, does this confirm v3?

Yeah, that's definitely a V3 cabinet.

 

[PLUS EV]

 

[PLUS EV]

^^^The above pics were from Saturday afternoon. As you can see, 4 v3 cabinets are on site and will be mounted on the newly created pad in the lower level of the parking garage. This would indicate 16 pedestals. Furthermore, I actually found 16 boxes stacked that were labeled as v3 pedestals and even saw a packing slip that said something like "v3 pedestals, quantity 16." So I think it's safe to say we're looking at 16 v3 pedestals at least until we get any contrary indication. @Chuq @MarcoRP please update supercharge.info with this information.

In other news there is currently a COVID-19 testing tent on the upper level of the garage, so if you're developing a cough and/or losing your sense of taste, be sure to scout out the construction and kill two birds with one stone

It's nice to see construction moving along rather quickly here. And 16 v3 stalls in a FREE parking area immediately off I-5 within the Seattle city limits will be pretty amazing, especially relative to the pre-pandemic Seattle supercharging landscape.

 

[acarney]

Being a mall location, I’m a little surprised there aren’t any destination chargers too...