(Image: @magnoliawkshop)
Work on a small — but surprisingly imposing — component of the $455.3 million Highway 520 project have come to a halt over neighbor complaints about new, oddly-looming sign bridges.
The Washington State Department of Transportation says crews have paused installation after two of the three massive structures were put in place and generated immediate complaints.
“We have received feedback from neighbors about the sign bridges and have paused installation of a third sign bridge pending additional community input,” WSDOT said about the situation. “It’s important to note the project area is still under construction.”
Whatever spurred by depth or volume of “feedback,” the work is on hold and a community process has been launched.
The department is now scrambling to collect feedback with a survey planned to close Wednesday, October 18th at midnight and a planned October 26th meeting where WSDOT will “share the results of the survey, review design context and constraints, and discuss potential options.”
(Image: WSDOT)
“The goal of the survey is to better understand the community’s concerns and priorities, and to make sure all neighbors and Montlake Boulevard users have the opportunity to share their thoughts,” WSDOT says.
WSDOT appears to be making the case that neighbors should give the coming Montlake Lid design the benefit of the doubt that the giant sign bridges won’t stand out as much amid “the lid’s future 10-foot-wide sidewalks, landscaping (trees and planters) and wider roadway alignment.” Other design elements like “12.5-inch-diameter black-painted light poles, 15-inch-diameter traffic signal poles with horizontal arms, 12.5-inch-diameter trolley wire poles and overhead trolley wires” will also, apparently, make the sign bridges stand out only as much as necessary in a busy streetscape.
The survey closes Wednesday, October 18th at midnight and the meeting is scheduled for 5:30 PM on Thursday, October 26 at the Queen City Yacht Club or online. You can take the survey and learn more here.
WSDOT says the $455.3 million Montlake Project remains on schedule for late 2023/early 2024 completion.
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I love the “not pictured” section of the WSDOT image. They’re also “not picturing” the house the sign bridge is directly in front of. CHS should get a photo of it, it’s kind of hilarious.
Or is the plan to knock down those houses as part of the lidding work??
The entire idea of expanding the 520 off ramp in that area was a bad idea, if you review the history of the project it was pushed through after being vetoed by both the SDOT as well as the state.
The neighborhood cannot handle the traffic and obviously the Montlake Bridge is a bottleneck that cannot be fixed.
Having traffic need to swerve in order to avoid having head on collisions? That is noted in the design review as well as being a concern for lawsuits against the city in the future.
I wonder if these are the same neighbors that prevented a dedicated bus lane near a major transit hub:
https://seattletransitblog.com/2018/04/17/sdot-nixes-bus-lanes-montlake/
Yawn…just Montlake NIMBY ‘tings
So out of scale and simple evidence that freeways are bad neighbors. Yeah to the lids and trails, but no thanks to neighborhood sign infrastructure scaled for freeways and stroads.
Yes it’s huge, but so is the intersection. It’s a freeway interchange, after all.
The signs prepare drivers mentally for freeway driving and would be a distraction in a crazy busy intersection with a lot of cyclists and pedestrians. They are not safe or compatible with Vision Zero. Thanks for covering.
One of the MOST annoying things in the world is driving an a novel area with poor signage. It may be seen ‘too big’ for some NIMBY locals, but good signage is a must.
Neighbors should’ve organized way earlier against expanding the freeway. More freeway equals more freeway and you get things like this… more freeway. It will be full of cars, traffic and accidents soon! Climate Governor says what?
He says whatever moralistic preening thing he can to pretend to be the Climate Governor.
You’ll know Seattle is serious about zoning for housing when light rail and UW adjacent MONTLAKE isn’t $ingle family only.