Preparation work for station construction began in January 2010, with the closure of East Denny Way and the installation of a construction wall around the site. The wall was painted red and adorned with public artwork by local street artists over the course of the five-year construction period. Excavation of the station box began in July, and reached the future platform level in December. In June 2011, the first of three tunnel boring machines, named "Brenda", was launched from Capitol Hill toward Westlake station in Downtown Seattle. A separate pair of machines, "Balto" and "Togo", were launched from University of Washington station at the same time and arrived at Capitol Hill station in March and April 2012. Brenda completed the twin tunnels to downtown in May 2012.
