The Burke-Gilman Trial has been open for weeks, but now King County is making it official (though you may have to leave work early to catch it):
Join us on March 13 at NE 165th St and the trail. Ribbon cutting ceremony will begin shortly after 4 p.m. Learn more about the construction project and all the awesomeness of the newly redeveloped segment!
Things could certainly have gone more smoothly for the over-budget and delayed project. But the new world-class trail is the result of a decade of work and tons of negotiation with various friendly and unfriendly local governments.
The project repaved the oldest segment of the trail. After 30 years, the trail edges were crumbling and simple repairs were not possible due to foundation issues. The new trail should not need significant repairs for decades.
Ribbon cutting location:
Comments
20 responses to “Burke-Gilman official grand opening Tuesday”
Look at the size of the new bridge! Can’t wait to try the new section out.
Having finally made it out to this section of the B.G. last weekend I gotta say, I was a little underwhelmed by only ONE aspect of the new section: The distance of the new section. I guess I honestly thought it was a much longer stretch, I hardly had enough time to enjoy it before it had completely passed me by. Don’t get me wrong, the new, extremely short, section is an absolute delight to experience. I hope they follow suit in the future, it’s just tragic that they will, AGAIN, have to close it for such a long period to do construction. I think they should have just done the entire stretch (UW to end of the lake) and called it good.
It was only $6 million dollars. What did you expect?
I won’t be there. A bunch hoopla about nothing.
Gosh Todd, you must of been excited when they opened Pine street to vehicle traffic in downtown Seattle!!!
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950310&slug=2109304
Well, now Doug, that seems a little more exciting. I was at the grand opening of the Ship Canal Trail but I think attending one of these in a lifetime is enough. As for the BGT, I’ve ridden it numerous times since the improvement. Why take time at work when it’s already open? At least the ceremony for the SCT opened at the time of the ceremony (or near to).
Good to know Todd. We were all really curious.
“…an absolute delight to experience.” Come on. It’s a bridge.
Todd is a “glass half empty” kinda guy.
Why would you want to go? The Ship Canal at least closely coincided with it’s opening. In fact, I think I was one of the first to ride on it “officially”. I was more interested in meeting some of the SDOT officials. But the BGT? It’s been open for quite some time and is rather “anitclimatic”. Certainly not worth it for me to take time off work to go to it. And if you’ve been following my posts — you know that I’m thrilled with the quality they provided and disgusted with the cost. I wouldn’t call that half empty.
Are you guys big ceremony guys?
Only if there are funny hats. Did they have those?
:)
So do private drive ways still have the right of way over bikes? I bet when the train was running it did not stop for private driveways. As a user of the old trial all those stop signs were major safety hazard, because riders would not stop (I don’t blame them) and cars think they will. No where have ever seen the right-of-way given to a private road or driveway. I surly hope this major mistake on the first design was addressed in a sane way.
I do know one of the major issues is that lowed the project down was the city of Lake Forest park (LFP). They wanted the trail to be resurfaced in gravel (so bike can’t ride on it). It took a court to overrule them because the trail is county property and LFP did not have the right to interfere. The funny thing about LFP’s attempt to get bikes off the trial would have put bike on Lake City Way thus disrupting car traffic, probably causing them more issues!
I ride to work in Lake Forest Park & home in Seattle. So I am so happy to see the reopening of the BGT. It is very well done and much safer then any other route!
Yes the City of LFP was a real problem with the trail. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to alter the design and fight the trail mostly to satisfy folks who live along the trail who made the most noise. The driveway stop signs have been replaced with yield signs facing the trail. This was a major issue with homeowners. But it’s taken years to get it done. I wonder how many people were hurt riding the trail due to crappy sight lines, tree roots etc…
I am just happy it’s done now because Lake Forest Park is again, run by the same folks who fought the trail a few years ago. As an LFP resident I am still pissed that so much of the City’s precious resources were spent fighting and delaying the trail. Ironic since the new Mayor ran on fiscal responsibility, but was a key advocate in spending loads of cash fighting the trail.
Sometimes that town feels like Hazzard County. Be careful riding through as I expect them to have the LFP police out writing tickets to speeding cyclists before too long.
So what you’re saying is that police should NOT be writing tickets to speeding cyclists? Speeding cars, yeah; speeding, cyclists, no? And you wonder why there’s friction between the two factions. Ya think it might have something to do with an unequal application of the law?
Simple solution to lead-footed cyclists: speed bumps. Seems like that would be an especially good idea near the LFP driveways, since everyone would have to slow down. It’s a trail, not a freeway. Some people seems to forget that.
Over budget. Gee, I’m shocked.
Don’t say that too loudly Alby. You might hurt some feelings in here.
The jurisdiction specific speed limit of 15 mph on the trail has no rational basis; that’s why cyclists object to it. Perhaps you would prefer all cyclists riding 16 mph or more in your way in the middle of the lane of the regular roads.
Cyclists should ride safely and within the law. What is the extent of the problem of speeding cyclists in LFP? Does it warrant deploying the limited (ie broke) resources of the City of LFP? In LFP it was always more about property rights than safety.
[…] I had the chance to pedal the refurbished northern section of the Burke-Gilman Trail, which had its official reopening on March 13. It was my first ride that far north on the trail–Whoa! We’re in Kenmore?–and […]