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A new phase of construction along SR 520 means the freeway stop will be gone.

By News Desk, News Partner

Jun 21, 2019 7:52 am ET

From King County: Effective Friday night, June 21 at 11:59 PM, construction along SR 520 will require the permanent closure of the Montlake Freeway Station stops in both directions.

Affected bus routes are Metro routes 252, 255, 257, 268 and 311; Sound Transit Express routes 545 and 555, and all other agencies’ routes that have served the stops.

The bus stop northbound on Montlake Blvd E at E Shelby Street will be the closest alternate stop.
When the stops close, transit riders who need to transfer to or from other Eastside service will do so at other locations, such as Evergreen Point Station, Yarrow Point Station, the University of Washington Link light rail station or at other transfer points in Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, downtown Seattle or in the University District.

To minimize the impact, WSDOT and Sound Transit are partnering to add more evening and weekend trips on ST Route 542 to augment existing service.

Visit Metro’s online regional Puget Sound Trip Planner to plan your travel, and for bus stop, schedule and other information, including predicted times at stops. To check your SR 520 travel options in advance, use a travel date June 22 or later.S

Visit Metro’s Service Advisories page for information about revised bus service, routing and stops for planned events. Transit reroute start and end times may be subject to change.
Thank you for riding and for using Metro’s services.

On Saturday, June 15, Bike Works will host its largest ever Kids Bike-o-Rama bike giveaway event, giving 250 bicycles and helmets away to youth ages 4-8 from families with limited resources.

Bike Works hosts the Kids Bike-o-Rama onsite at their Columbia City offices twice yearly, in June and December. It is an event where youth ages 4-8 receive a refurbished bicycle and new helmet to keep, free of charge. Volunteers work for months refurbishing donated children’s bicycles to give away at the Kids Bike-o-Rama. Bike Works partners with youth-serving organizations in central and south Seattle to identify children in need of a working bike. This year’s partner organizations include Somali Task Force, Solid Ground, Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club, Horn of Africa, Filipino Community Center, Seattle Housing Authority in Rainier Vista, New Holly, and High Point, SeaMar White Center, and more.

In 2018, Bike Works served 1,582 youth and 1,196 adults who together contributed 8,130 hours volunteering at their weekly drop-in bicycle repair sessions, teaching in their classrooms, and serving on their board of directors. They collected 6,993 used bikes for repair and refurbishment, diverting 244,755 pounds from the waste stream and returning thousands back to the road as earth-friendly, affordable, healthy means of transportation, recreation, and fun. Their youth participants cycled a cumulative 4,563 miles – the distance from Seattle to Los Angeles, four times!

 Learn more at https://bikeworks.org.

From the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. Posted on Thursday, June 6, 2019 – 7:00 am by Emily Piette, CHS Summer Intern 2019

The Montlake Market won’t stand in the way of progress to complete the replacement of SR 520. The state has agreed to acquire the property for $16 million as it prepares for the start of construction on the “Montlake Project” to create an improved Montlake Boulevard interchange, a landscaped lid over SR 520, a bicycle and pedestrian “land bridge” east of the lid, and a three-lane West Approach Bridge South over Union Bay for eastbound traffic.

Thursday night, WSDOT will hold a pre-construction open house hosted by the SR 520 project’s contractor from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. The meeting will cover the latest project designs, construction schedule, and management plan for limiting construction effects in Montlake.

But the fate of the market destined to make way for the project became much more clear with the $16 million deal.

According to King County records, the property’s longtime owner, Lynne Parrott, a Clyde Hill resident and Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman, Jr.’s niece. The property has a taxable value of around $1.4 million. WSDOT had estimated preserving the market would add another $20 million to the construction costs around the project.

In May, WSDOT broke the news on the deal at a community meeting in the neighborhood:

Dave Becher, WSDOT’s Director of Construction for the SR 520 Program, informed meeting participants that WSDOT and the property’s owner recently agreed on a purchase price for the property, and WSDOT will take ownership in June. He also said WSDOT leadership determined it is not practicable to preserve the market during Montlake Project construction, and the building will be removed in early 2020.

No date has been announced for the market’s closure but WSDOT was slated to take possession of the property this month. The state is working to establish a location for a temporary market to operate during the 520 construction.

The Montlake Blvd Market, or Hop-In, lists an opening year of 1936.

Incompatible as a service station and market in the future layout of the reconfigured streets, the parcel had been planned to stage construction for the Montlake project and later phases of construction. Once the Montlake Project is completed, the legislature has now directed WSDOT to sell the market and gas station property immediately – “approximately six years earlier than planned,” WSDOT says.

The state will also oversee the process of decontaminating the soil beneath the longtime service station.

“Keeping the market was not feasible, but we did not make the decision in a vacuum. We talked to legislators about Montlake Market, they drafted the proviso of what we could do for the community, and we readily agreed,” said Steve Peer, the project’s media and construction communications manager. Peer added the project “threads the needle through the highly urban environment of the Montlake neighborhood, and the Montlake Market has been there for decades.”

The $455.3 million project to create an improved Montlake Boulevard interchange, a landscaped lid over SR 520, a bicycle and pedestrian “land bridge” east of the lid, and a three-lane West Approach Bridge South over Union Bay for eastbound traffic is now set to begin construction that is likely to last into 2024.

You can learn more about Thursday’s meeting and the project here.

The design-build contractor for the SR 520 Montlake Project, Graham, is preparing to begin construction. Before crews break ground, Graham will host an open house next Thursday, June 6, to give project neighbors and corridor travelers the opportunity to meet the design and construction team, see the latest project renderings, review the preliminary construction schedule and learn how to review and comment on the Community Construction Management Plan (more information on this is available below!).

The SR 520 Montlake Project is the first of four remaining projects in the SR 520 Bridge Replacement and HOV Program. We call these four, collectively, the “Rest of the West.” The Montlake Project includes a new Montlake interchange, a landscaped lid over SR 520, a bicycle/pedestrian bridge connecting East Montlake Park to the Arboretum, and a new West Approach Bridge South for eastbound traffic.

For those unable to attend in person, the information presented at the open house will also be available in an online open house. We’ll provide details soon about the online event.

In-person open house details:

Date/time: Thursday, June 6, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. 
Location: St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 2100 Boyer Ave. E., Seattle, WA 98112 
Transit: Bus routes 43, 48, 255, 311 and 545 serve the Montlake/SR 520 area. The U District Link light rail station at Husky Stadium is about one mile from St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church.
Parking: Limited free parking is available on site.

The design-build contractor for the Montlake Project, Graham Contracting, has developed a draft Community Construction Management Plan (CCMP) to identify best measures and practices to reduce impacts from SR 520 Montlake Project work on historic properties, neighbors, and travelers on the SR 520 corridor. You may review the draft CCMP online. After reviewing, please take this survey to let Graham know your thoughts on the procedures proposed to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the effects of construction. Copies of the document will also be available at the June 6 open house, and this will be a topic of discussion at the June 10th quarterly meeting. Please provide any comments on the draft CCMP no later than June 20^th, 2019.

We have a new shipment of all styles and sizes of our Montlake Gear.

You can purchase gear at two Pop-Up Shops at the Boyer Children’s Clinic on Tuesday, May 14^thand Tuesday, June 11^th from 6:30 to 7:00 PM.  The shops will be in the Boyer Clinic (1850 Boyer Ave E) – basement conference room. The entrance to the conference room is in the garage, entrance on E Howe Street.

If these dates don’t work for you, please contact us at treasurer@montlake.net and we can arrange to drop off your gear at your home.

• Donate to Montlake Community Club

GIVE BIG is a regional fundraiser happening now through May 8th. Please share the above link on social media and use it to donate to your Montlake Community Club.

Your financial support actively improves our neighborhood through volunteer-run projects like:

~The Second Annual Turkey Trot that raised over $30,000 in 2018 for the University Food Bank

~Improving transportation and safety in the neighborhood

~Challenging the city and state to improve traffic, bike and pedestrian safety including 520 design and construction issues and the 23rd Ave Corridor Improvement Project

~Promoting the annual All Montlake Yard Sale 

~Sponsoring the festive winter lights that adorn downtown Montlake

~Driving the campaign to save the Montlake Market

Thank you for your support!

From the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog:

Posted on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 – 7:00 am by jseattle

State Rep. Nicole Macri has responded to survey results that show some Montlake residents — and their supporters across Seattle — would do pretty much anything to save the Montlake Market from being torn down and eliminated during construction of new SR-520 improvements through the area.

Macri announced a new limitation on 520 construction spending in the House transportation budget that requires WSDOT to “work with the Montlake Market to keep it open through the year.”

“Further, WSDOT is required to work with the City to allow food vendors in the area and develop a communication outreach plan to the community to solicit community input as to the food services provided,” Macri’s announcement reads.

The proviso is part of a $10 billion transportation budget proposed by House Democrats that “makes investments in each part of the state to get people where they need to be and get goods shipped around the world. It includes major funding to remove fish-barriers on state roads as part of the broader solution to helping our struggling orca population,” Macri said.

While it seems a tempest in a teapot, residents have told WSDOT they are willing for the state to spend millions in possible construction and delay costs to save the market which has been planned to be removed to make way for the $455.3 million in projects to create an improved Montlake Boulevard interchange, a landscaped lid over SR 520, a bicycle and pedestrian “land bridge” east of the lid, and a three-lane West Approach Bridge South over Union Bay for eastbound traffic.

CHS reported on the various options for keeping the market and WSDOT’s efforts to gather neighborhood feedback here. You can read WSDOT’s report on the community feedback here (PDF).

The WSDOT Accountability Coalition says it has run a survey of its own showing neighbors are “highly frustrated with the mega-project’s design & construction methods, including the unnecessary condemnation of the Montlake Market property for staging.”

The Montlake Blvd Market, or Hop-In, lists an opening year of 1936. The property’s owner has been Lynne Parrott, a Clyde Hill resident and Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman, Jr.’s niece, according to King County records. The property has a taxable value of around $1.4 million.

Construction is slated to start later this year and the work could wrap up in 2023.