This post was originally published at Capitol Hill Seattle.
We’ve already looked at the state’s concepts for a walking and biking trail across Lake Washington via a reconstructed 520 floating bridge. But the reconstructed bridge will also come with redesigns for the entire section of highway between the lake and I-5.
Earlier this month, the state held an open house in Montlake to take a closer look at designs for that neighborhood. Future open houses will focus on the Portage Bay (May) and Roanoke Lid (June) sections.
The proposed design includes a lid through Montlake with new park space and changes to both Montlake and Lake Washington Boulevards. The bus stops and transit lanes would be on the lid as well.
People will be able to access the new biking and walking trail from existing streets and sidewalks as well as a new trail that loop under the bridge near the lake shore and head toward the Arboretum.
There, the trail could meet up with a new proposed multi-use trail through the arboretum, which would provide a safe alternative to Lake Washington Boulevard for people on foot and bike. Lake Washington Boulevard will likely remain a busy roadway. For more on the arboretum trail, see our previous coverage.
The next meeting will be May 19 (details TBA) to discuss the Portage Bay section of the design. As we noted previously, plans for this section of the project do not yet include a biking and walking trail to connect to Roanoke Park and Capitol Hill, though that option is being sought by biking and walking advocates.
For more details on the Montlake plans, see the state’s boards presented at the April open house.
Comments
3 responses to “A look at plans for the new 520 Bridge through Montlake”
From what I understand of the plans the bike connection from the Montlake Bridge down to the lid bus stops will be less than ideal. And I’m a bit concerned with how bike and pedestrian traffic are expected to mix outside of the UW Link station when that gets done. Still, it will be an improvement over the mess that it is today. And fewer people will care about the bus stops on the lid when they can just ride across the lake.
Hopefully they don’t run out of money before doing this stuff. If WSDOT runs out they could always raid the DBT budget…
[…] months ago this victory was a mere flickering hope. Last July, spurred by excellent reporting from Seattle Bike Blog, neighbors flying the flags of Central Seattle Greenways, Montlake […]
[…] months ago this victory was a mere flickering hope. Last July, spurred by excellent reporting from Seattle Bike Blog, neighbors flying the flags of Central Seattle Greenways, Montlake […]