Comment: "The Empire State Building was constructed in one year and closed no surface streets. Sound Transit could do the work it needs in two years or less, leaving time to consider better alternatives, including technologies that were not available when Sound Transit planned East Link."

The Empire State Building is a building, not a train network, and it was built before there were regulations in place to keep workers safe. This is such a silly comparison it hardly deserves a rebuttal, but it's made so often that people believe it has merit. It doesn't. 

As for how quickly ST *could* complete the project, it could be sped up greatly if restrictions on nighttime and weekend construction were curtailed, but somehow I doubt Mercer Island residents would be crazy about that prospect either.