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Sound Transit contractors have connected the University Link light-rail tunnels with the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT), Sound Transit officials announced yesterday.

The tunnel-boring machine recently completed a one-mile trip on the second tunnel between Capitol Hill and downtown, agency officials said in a prepared statement.

The machine’s arrival and removal of a headwall between the mining operations and the DSTT means twin tunnels now run 3.1 miles between downtown and the University of Washington. Contractor JCM U-Link Joint Venture mined two tunnels about a mile long between the site of the future Capitol Hill Station and downtown Seattle. A separate contractor completed the twin tunnels between the university and Capitol Hill in early April.

Next, the contractors will focus on completing 21 cross passages between the twin tunnels by early 2013, agency officials said.

The $1.9 billion University Link project is about halfway completed and scheduled to open in 2015. The 3.15-mile light-rail extension will serve the state’s three largest urban centers: downtown Seattle, Capitol Hill and the university district.