Speaking last week at a Queen Anne Community Council Transportation Committee meeting, she said footers have been poured for the pedestrian bridge, which Johnson Architecture designed to resemble the double-helix DNA molecule.
KPFF Engineering, the company tapped to build the overpass, will use a modular approach, according to Wennberg. "They're bringing it in in pieces and welding it together."
Plans call for the Helix campus and the pedestrian overpass both to be completed by next December.
Approximately 800 employees are expected to set up shop on the campus in the first quarter of next year, she said.The pedestrian overpass was meant to partially compensate the city for building the so-called Galer Street Flyover to take vehicles across the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tracks at the northern end of the Helix campus, according to local biotech company Immunex.
Amgen snapped up Immunex after the local company had begun work on the Helix project. Amgen will now pay for the pedestrian bridge. Although the pedestrian overpass will provide the public with a way to get across the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tracks to reach Myrtle Edwards Park, it was also intended to serve another purpose.
According to Wennberg, that's to make it easier for Amgen staffers to get to work without driving to the campus.
"We want to make it harder for them to park than to take alternate modes of transportation," she said.
Indeed, the first phase of the project provides only 600 parking places for the company's workforce.
Getting Amgen staffers to leave their vehicles at home shouldn't be a hard sell. Wennberg said a recent survey indicated that 66 percent of Amgen employees already use alternative modes of transportation to get to work.
Amgen has also been working with Metro, the Seattle Department of Transportation and monorail planners to ensure that alternate forms of transportation can handle the extra load, she said.
However, in the case of the monorail (see story this issue), Amgen appears to be out of luck.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com.
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