SR 520 bridge open, but still more work to be done

You might think that with all the hoopla over the opening of the state Route 520 floating bridge, things would finally calm down around the Montlake interchange and the Washington Park Arboretum. But months and years of construction work (and accompanying delays) will continue to loom over Madison Park, Montlake and the arboretum.

The big project that is still under construction, as anyone who has driven the bridge can see, is the West Approach Bridge North (WABN). This is the new column bridge that will connect to the new floating bridge and take drivers through to the Montlake interchange. Scheduled for completion next summer, WABN work has continued to impact traffic and routes even as the floating bridge construction has ended. 

When work on the WABN is combined with construction getting underway on the new Arboretum Loop Trail — not to mention intermittent construction and road work on the 23rd/24th Avenue corridor — a trip north or south from Madison Park to Montlake or SR 520 is still unpredictable for local residents. 

Moving at traffic speed

For Madison Park Community Council president Maurice Cooper, the recent milestone of the bridge opening is just the latest chapter in 18 years of arguments and debate with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).

“I think it was a mistake to begin with,” Cooper said. 

He would have preferred a suspension bridge, but that option went away long ago in planning. The large, raised bridge deck is much higher than the old bridge; WSDOT says it did that to cut down on water over the bridge during windy storms, among other reasons.

Cooper contends, “We used to be able to see Kirkland from Madison Park; now, all we see is this bridge…with bright blue and orange lights.”

Cooper said that he was glad to see the arboretum get money from WSDOT for a new loop trail through the park, but he was hoping that the trail would allow cyclists an option to get through the park without using the main roadway. As it stands now, cyclists will still be forced to deal with narrow lanes and high curbs of Lake Washington Boulevard as it winds through the arboretum, slowing traffic and suitable only for “Type-A bicycle riders” as Cooper puts it — those able to keep at traffic speed.

People living in Madison Park know that there are only so many ways out of the neighborhood. If you want to go to the University of Washington (UW) or the UW Medical Center or other points north, you must deal with Lake Washington Boulevard or the increasing congestion on the 23rd/24th Avenue corridor.

Detours

Local resident Julie Branson is mom to active high school-age kids. She plans her day around the traffic. 

“It’s gotten worse since the new off-ramps went in for the bridge,” she said. “ The locals know where to go, but other people don’t know their way around. I see people trying to make U-turns on Lake Washington Boulevard.”

She understands that living near a major highway comes with some problems, but with the construction and changes to the neighborhood, traffic patterns have led to another issue. 

“People are using quiet residential streets like Miller [Street] and 25th Avenue to avoid the congestion,” she said. “They scream down my street because it’s a shortcut to the boulevard. We complained to the city, and they gave a neighbor a radar gun to track the speeders.”

Also, pedestrians and bicyclists must now detour around construction vehicles and staging areas with the changes to the recently reopened 24th Avenue bridge that spans the highway adjacent to the Lake Washington Boulevard off-ramp. 

Construction crews and accompanying equipment staging at the site of the old Museum of History & Industry have caused this bridge to be restricted to motorized vehicles. When the bridge reopened in this configuration in January, bicyclists and pedestrians were routed to Montlake Boulevard.

Steve Peer, of WSDOT, says the department knows this is a difficult program: “The Montlake interchange is a very constrained so it’s a delicate balancing act to keep traffic moving on both SR 520 and the local streets. Since the installation of the westbound SR 520 off-ramp to Montlake Boulevard in August 2015, WSDOT and SDOT (Seattle Department of Transportation) traffic engineers have been closely monitoring traffic in the area and making adjustments, as needed, to keep traffic flowing.”

Once WABN is completed, work on the West Approach Bridge South will start. No timetable is set for this, but it is now funded and planning has commenced.

WSDOT invites residents to attend one of its regular monthly meetings; this month’s meeting is in the Washington Park Arboretum’s Graham Visitors Center (2300 Arboretum Drive E.) on Wednesday, May 4, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. 

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