On Friday, Jan. 25, members of the NE Seattle community, Friends of the Burke-Gilman Trail and Cascade Bicycle Club met with representatives of Children’s Hospital and their design team to take a look at their proposed Burke-Gilman Trail connection.
Architect Jim Keller walks community members through the proposed designs
As part of the public benefit of Children’s Major Institution Master Plan and its Livable Streets Initiative, Children’s wants to provide a pedestrian, bicycle- and wheelchair-friendly connection from the Burke-Gilman Trail to Sand Point Way NE, just south of NE 50th Street.
A combination of bridges and a shared-use path, the connection would link the Bryant and Laurelhurst communities and also provide better access to public transit along Sand Point Way NE.
The general design was approved in April 2010 but Children’s has continued to refine the design through a public open house and various meetings through December 2012.
At the meeting on Friday, Children’s Director of Transportation and Sustainability Paulo Nunes-Ueno and landscape architect Jim Keller walked participants through the two concepts designs and welcomed feedback.
The connections in the concepts differed from one another in that one takes users on an elevated bridge across a parking lot to Sand Point Way NE while the other connection is a less-elevated, windy path through parkland.
In designing the connection, the landscape architects and geoengineers are dealing with a few environmental challenges such as environmentally critical areas, steep slopes, tree removal, parkland and the impact of retaining walls.
While there are trade-offs, Nunes-Ueno said the Burke-Gilman trail connection will benefit the health and welfare of the greater community.
In building the connection, Children’s will:
- provide an ADA-accessible public connection to the new intersection on Sand Point Way, the newest and safest pedestrian and bike crossing along that street;
- preserve the existing significant trees and landscape;
- improve the Environmentally Critical Area;
- remove invasive non-native plants from the public property;
- remove diseased trees and replace them with appropriate native species in healthy condition;
- provide ongoing maintenance, allowing Friends of the Burke-Gilman Trail to focus on other areas of need along the trail;
- design new impervious surfaces and site development using Green Storm Water infrastructure engineering methods.
“The design concept has been subjected to extensive public review and comment, which is still ongoing,” said Todd Johnson, Vice President of Facilities at Children’s. “We’re still shaping the design based on input.”
There will be an open house regarding this project on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 10 a.m. at University of Washington’s Gould Hall. The design team will present the concepts to the general public then and field community input.
Children’s hopes to build the Burke-Gilman connection as soon as Children’s Phase 1 hospital expansion project is completed.
Unless they expand the Northwest corner of Sand Point and 40th, this is going to be a mess with any amount of bike/pedestrian traffic (upper right-hand corner of the given image). In addition to a wall, they just put in crosswalk button post and utility pole directly in the sidewalk. These get in the way so there is maybe room for two people walking side-by-side, but not much more than that. If they do not fix this, there will be confrontations between pedestrians and cyclists, the latter will need to either dismount or be very cautious with their maneuvering. They could fix this by expanding the area of the sidewalk, making a straight connection between the sidewalk and the proposed BG connector, or putting the utility pole and post in the landscaping instead of in the sidewalk. So far, this intersection seems like a good idea but poor execution. Hope they fix this, I walk or bike through here every day.
Great concept, somewhat concerned that some of the corners don’t appear to provide nearly the turning radius and sight lines normally required for a multi-use trail descending an 8% grade — should be sure to include warning signage and posted speed limits suitable for the geometry of the facility.
I live in the Bryant neighborhood just a few blocks to the west of the proposed connection. Let me cut to the chase. Children’s staff is misleading the bicycle community and adjacent neighborhoods about this connection. The biggest lie is how at least 30% of the ramp will be constructed on parkland – that is the Burke-Gilman Trail. Why can’t Children’s staff and their design consultants be honest about this and include the park property boundary on their design? Why can’t they tell the public that they do not have any sort of approval from Seattle Parks, or the Department of Planning and Development?
I am not a NIMBY person. I just want to see Children’s limited funding put to use improving pedestrian and bicycle facilities which benefit the community at large. Children’s own master plan from 2010 shows the Hartmann Property connection designated only for pedestrians. All bicycle connections were to be made at NE 50th Street, continuing east towards Sand Point Way NE. Putting the $600,000 estimated ramp cost towards improving NE 50th at the B-G Trail (another ramp, more lighting, etc.) and making the street truly ped/bike friendly east towards Sand Point Way seems to be far greater bang for the buck. The Hartmann connection deadends at the back of a condo tower and at the back of houses 100 or so feet away. Do you think that this will be a people safe place at night?
Why this Hartmann connection, why now, since it was not to be constructed until Phase 2 of the master plan?
Besides all of this Children’s there is a settlement agreement between them and the Laurelhurst Community Club which specifically details conditions of development of the Hartmann Property and any B-G Trail connection.
Thanks for the well written post, Cascade folks. And thanks also for the comments. Please join us for the open house this Saturday at Gould Hall 3949 15th Ave NE from 10am-2pm. We’d love to show you the plans in more detail and hear your ideas. Brief responses below:
@Jon: Good point. We have some constraints at that location i.e. significant tree, neighbors property line. But we do have some flexibility in reshaping the area to better accomodate peds and bikes at the signal. If you get a chance, come to the open house to share your ideas.
@Joshua Putnam: I believe the trail connection is being developed to ‘shared-use path’ standards which are different than ‘multi-use path’ I believe. Having said that, I’d be curious to hear more about idea for posted warning signage and posted speed limits. I’m not familiar with speed limit or warning sign standard for bicycle facilities.
@Kevin: Thank you for your concern about the use of Children’s funds. We strive to be wise with our dollars and at the same time meet or exceed our regulatory requirements. You’ve asked quite a few questions. I hope I can help clear some of the confusion:
Why this project?
1) Because City Council has required Children’s to build it
Why now?
1) Because our Citizen’s Advisory Committee has requested that Children’s build it as soon as possible
Why haven’t we told people that part of the project is on parks property?
We have. Repeatedly. The project has not changed locations since it was proposed in 2009.
Why hasn’t it been approved by Parks, SDOT or DPD?
The project has been reviewed by the City’s Design Commission, City Council’s Transportation Committee, the full Council, SDOT, DPD and Parks. As you may know a full review (and hopefully approval) will come during the MUP process.
Why is Children’s “lying”?
We aren’t Kevin. I think you know that.
As the former chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee and chair of the Standing Advisory Committee I can attest to the fact that this connection was of very high importance to the committee members. This is a great way to connect the Laurelhurst and Bryant neighborhoods. I live less than a block away from where this will intersect with the BGT – in fact my house backs onto Blakely Street. I see this as an incredible asset to the immediate neighbors as it will enable great access to the BGT.
I’m really excited about this. Our son’s pediatrician is in the Hartmann building, and we’re close enough that we always walk or bike here.
My route is usually the Burke -> NE 50th St -> 40th Ave NE (which lacks curb ramps; annoying when you’re using a stroller) -> Sand Point Way -> Hartmann building driveway (which lacks a sidewalk). An alternative route is to take the Burke -> NE 45th St -> Sand Point Way, but that means more walking on Sand Point Way (which is unpleasant due to traffic/noise).
This appears to solve both problems; there will be a sidewalk for accessing the building, and a direct link from the Burke. Hooray!
I enthusiastically support this new connection and strongly disagree with some of the posts implying that there is insufficient public benefit to justify the impacts. This trail is a significant improvement over existing connections to the Burke-Gilman trail near the hospital, as it allows bikes and pedestrians to cross both 40th Ave NE and Sand Point Way at a single, signalized intersection. That is huge! I live in Laurelhurst and commute to work by bike. While there is an alternative option at NE 50th St, as noted in another comment, it involves unmarked crossings at both 40th Ave NE and Sand Point Way. I currently take this route on my way home from work on my bike, and it is not only inconvenient but also dangerous. In addition, I see this new connection providing the additional benefit of encouraging hospital employees to bike and walk to work, thereby helping to further mitigate the traffic caused by the hospital’s expansion. I feel confident that the hospital planners can work out a design, with neighborhood input, that will minimize impact on the vegetation in the area and still make this valuable trail a reality.