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A fiscal-year 2008 U.S. Department of Transportation funding bill that proposes to appropriate $100 million for Sound Transit passed the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies yesterday. The bill includes $30 million for Sound Transit’s University Link light-rail project, and a $70 million installment for the agency’s $500 million Full Funding Grant Agreement for the initial Link light-rail line. The bill now will go before the full Senate Appropriations Committee.

The funding would help Sound Transit complete final design and continue acquiring property for the 3.15-mile University Link extension from downtown Seattle to the University of Washington. If approved, the $30 million would be put toward the $750 million Full Funding Grant Agreement Sound Transit is seeking from the Federal Transit Administration for the $1.6 billion project.

Meanwhile, Sound Transit’s initial Link light-rail segment from downtown Seattle to Tukwila, Wash., is more than 70 percent complete and on track to open in July 2009. The line’s final leg from Tukwila to Sea-Tac International Airport is scheduled to open in December 2009.