BEACON HILL - The Chief Sealth Trail awaits.
The long anticipated major link in Seattle's Regional Trail System is now complete. Passing through the Rainier Valley, it hugs the eastern slope of Beacon Hill, following the Seattle City Light transmission right of way, coursing uphill to meet Beacon Avenue a few blocks shy of Columbia Way. The trail highlights citizen, government, and business cooperation.
Saturday, May 12, a dedication celebration attended by Mayor Greg Nickels marked the opening of Southeast Seattle's first major multi-purpose trail.
The trail was finished under a successful partnership of Washington state, city of Seattle, and private resources. Connie Zimmerman, Seattle Department of Transportation project manager for the trail, said, "Chief Sealth Trail has been a simultaneously serendipitous and challenging opportunity to build Seattle's newest major leg of its Regional Trail system. Through this public-private partnership we leveraged tremendous benefits for the city and its citizens."
By agreement, RCI Herzog undertook the project in exchange for placing clean fill from its work on the Sound Transit Link Light Rail project along Rainier Avenue in a corridor owned by City Light. While RCI Herzog provided earthwork and drainage needed for the trail, the City of Seattle managed environmental permitting and trail design. This collaboration resulted in not only reducing the timeframe of the project by almost two years, but also the overall cost.
Through this partnership, several missing links were completed. These included trail construction along Gazelle and Henderson, paving between South Kenyon and South Webster, installing a crossing signal for the trail at South Myrtle Place, and placing directional and interpretive signage from where the trail begins at South Gazelle Street to where it ends at Beacon Avenue.
"We were able to create health-promoting long term benefits for the community by constructing a pleasing, green and safe 3.6 mile trail on which to walk and bike," Zimmerman said.
The trail connects two of Seattle's urban villages - Othello and Rainier Beach - while establishing an approach to a third urban village on Beacon Hill. The trail also helps guarantee access to the South Othello and South Henderson streets' light rail stations. It creates a non-motorized, parallel right-of-way to Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
According to the Seattle Department of Transportation, over 28,000 cars and trucks use Martin Luther King Jr. every day. Adding this important route for alternative transportation can decrease the traffic flow on the street by removing bicycles from vehicular traffic, while increasing accessibility and safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.
"We improved access for City Light's operational needs in the utility corridor," Zimmerman said, "all the while re-using building materials from the nearby Sound Transit Link Light Rail project and reducing use of fossil fuels during construction."
The project has, she continued, "promoted long-term effects of encouraging transportation modes that don't use fossil fuels at all!"
The trail will ultimately link to the north with the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trail along I-90 leading downtown, to the west with trails in Georgetown and SODO, and south to Seattle city limits.
"One doesn't get many opportunities for working on projects that come to fruition so fast with such a long list of 'wins,'" Zimmerman summarized. "It doesn't get any better than that!"
Beacon Hill writer Craig Thompson may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.
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