It’s construction season in Seattle, one of our two seasons (the other being the rainy season.) Closures have been announced or are in effect on the Interurban both North and South of Seattle, on the Sammamish River trail, on the Tolt Pipeline trail – and on the Burke Gilman.
King County just issued a determination of non-significance with respect to the paving of the existing trail that branches off of the Cedar River trail. (This is the initial segment of a trail that will eventually run over to Black Diamond and server as a connector between the Cedar and Green River trails.)
My issue is the statement that “A variety of wall types, including solider (sic) pile, concrete cantilever, and gravity block will be installed…” It’s a trail, folks. it’s flat. The railroad grade has been there for 100 years. Why do we need to tear out the existing structures and engineer a cadillac version? Pave it, use permeable asphalt if you want, but take the savings and pave the Cedar River trail to Landsburg.
The cost of building out the compromise route of the missing link on the Burke is now up to $26 million and it will go higher before they get done. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that most of the conflict I encounter while riding is in construction zones – in our system those guys really do rule.