The 520 Trail across Lake Washington will be closed starting at 11 p.m. tonight (Friday) until 5 a.m. Monday morning. I suppose the silver lining here is that this time the closure is for construction of the future biking and walking bridge, which will some day be quite nice after all these years of construction headaches.
Details from WSDOT:
Westbound SR 520 and its associated ramps will close between 92nd Avenue Northeast on the Eastside and I-5 in Seattle from 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 24. During these hours, crews will drill shafts for the highway lid and the pedestrian and bicycle bridge we’re building in Seattle’s Montlake neighborhood. The SR 520 Trail across the lake also will close over the coming weekend.
Rain is finally here. Time to joyfully dig out your rain gear and go for a beautiful wet bike ride. Seattle comes to life in a totally different way when it rains. So if you are new to town, don’t hide inside or put your bike away for the winter. With fenders and rain gear, you can bike year-round.
But be extra cautious of slick surfaces because oils have built up during all this dry weather. The first rains after a long dry period create oil slicks, which are especially problematic on metal surfaces like grates or utility covers. Even some kinds of roadway paint can become slick.
The trick is to avoid turning or braking when your wheels are in contact with anything potentially slippery. Keep your balance centered, let go of the brakes and glide over the slick spot. If you have to turn or brake on something slippery, then slow way down before you get there. After a few days of rain, most the oils will wash into our sewers and waterways, which is also bad but in a different way.
Heads up to anyone out late Friday or working early on Saturday: SDOT is repairing the metal bridge decking on the Fremont Bridge from midnight to 6 a.m. Saturday morning.
The bridge, including the sidewalks, will be closed except for 15-minute openings at 1, 2, 3 and 4 a.m. So you might be stuck waiting 45 minutes or having to reroute to the Aurora Bridge.
HeadsUp Seattle: The Fremont Bridge will be closed overnight from midnight Friday (10/21) to 6AM on Saturday (10/22). Please plan accordingly.
Our crews will be conducting preventative maintenance from midnight on Friday, October 21 until 6 a.m. on Saturday morning to repair the Fremont Bridge’s metal bridge deck. The drawbridge will be raised overnight so that crews can repair sections of the metal grating of the bridge deck. This work is weather-dependent.
The Fremont Bridge is over a century old and is believed to be the most frequently raised drawbridge in America and one of the busiest drawbridges in the world. Over time, the fasteners which hold the metal bridge deck in place have worn down and loosened, causing the metal grating to shift when a vehicle drives over it. It is important to repair and maintain the bridge deck in order to prevent the metal grates from moving around and damaging other bridge components.
Crew members will be lifted as high as 100 feet above the water to complete the welding work. This will be done using a truck with a movable arm to reach the sections that need to be repaired. The process will involve super-heating the metal bridge deck with a welding torch to burn off layers of accumulated dirt, and then repairing the attachments that hold the metal grating in place.
Performing this work while the bridge is raised is the most efficient way to complete the repairs. This gives crews the best access to the underside of the bridge so that they can finish the welding work more quickly and minimize the disruption for the traveling public.
We hope to finish the work in one night, but if that is not possible, we will schedule a similar overnight closure the following week.
Two years after Sound Transit construction closed a short walking and biking connection to the 1st Ave NE/N 117th Street bridge over I-5, the agency has opened its replacement.
The new trail connection is short, but it is a significant improvement for people trying to access the only somewhat bike-friendly crossing of I-5 in a 3-mile stretch between the John Lewis Memorial Bridge and NE 155th Street in Shoreline. I say “somewhat bike-friendly” because the 1st Ave NE bridge doesn’t have bike lanes, but it is lower-traffic than the closest alternatives: NE Northgate Way and NE 130th Street. I-5 crossings are so rare that every possible walking and biking option is precious. The Seattle Bicycle Master Plan does call for protected bike lanes on the bridge, but they are not yet funded.
The new trail is not a copy of the previous one. It connects to NE 115th Street, a block south of the old trail which is now buried beneath light rail tracks. From 115th, the connection travels south a block before passing under the new tracks and connecting to 1st Ave NE. It does not connect to any major citywide or regional bike routes, but it is a huge improvement for people who live or work nearby.
SDOT has gained permit approval to build the Ballard Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail, though the project is not out of the woods yet. Litigation is ongoing and will continue into 2023. But the Shoreline Permit brings the trail one more step closer, and the official timeline calls for construction in the middle of 2023 if legal challenges are resolved in time. That is one of the longest-running “ifs” in Seattle transportation project history, as the city has been trying to build this connection for at least two decades.
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed 2023–24 budget includes $2.5 million for the redesign work needed for the new trail concept.
The permit (PDF) is a big deal because the Department of Construction and Inspections has confirmed SDOT’s assertion that the redesigned trail design is exempt from the State Environmental Policy Act and is legal under all other relevant development policies such as the Shoreline Management Act. The revamped design is a scaled back version of previous ambitious and high-budget designs, which have been held up in court for many years. By reducing the amount of space that is being repaved and significantly modified, SDOT says the project is no longer big enough to require environmental review under state law, which project appellants have successfully used to delay the project in court.
You can see details of the new design in our previous story. In short, the new design does not move the train tracks, does not restore two-way car traffic on NW 45th Street, and is a bit skinnier along Shilshole. It also trades some planned traffic signals for crosswalks. While some of those trade-offs are bummers, they are worth it if it finally gets the thing built.
But the legal fighting is not over. Appellants have 21 days from October 11 to appeal the decision to the State Shorelines Hearings Board, which we can pretty much assume will happen. There is also an ongoing case in King County Superior Court that is currently scheduled for trial March 20 (though these things have a way of getting pushed back). Hopefully the city’s arguments hold firm this time and we can finally build this damn trail already.
Meanwhile, people continue to crash on the unfinished section and get seriously injured. The longer this delay continues, the more people will be injured.
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Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
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Details from Seattle Parks: On scheduled weekends from May to September, a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday. “Seattle Parks and Recreation[…]
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
The 520 Trail across Lake Washington will be closed starting at 11 p.m. tonight (Friday) until 5 a.m. Monday morning. I suppose the silver lining here is that this time the closure is for construction of the future biking and walking bridge, which will some day be quite nice after all these years of construction headaches.
