Montlake Blvd Market – Hop-In Market

Late breaking development ahead of tonight’s SR 520 west side corridor open house, WSDOT is proposing to acquire and demolish the Montlake Market/Hop-In. The area would be used for staging for the next 12 years. If this is a concern, please let WSDOT know at tonight’s open house and share your feedback on other design elements. If you can’t make the meeting you can make comments on the online version of the open house here  http://sr520.participate.online until July 8. 

• When: 4:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 28
• Where: St. Demetrios Hall – 2100 Boyer Avenue East, Seattle, WA 98112

This will be the last major opportunity for community feedback, please attend the meeting or submit comments online.

Update:

WSDOT released the following information at 6:25pm on June 29, 2016:

The Montlake Market

One frequently raised topic at the open house was the status of the Montlake Boulevard Market. We’re preparing a Q&A on this and other topics discussed during the open house. We’ll post the Q&A and send you a link in an upcoming email update, but meantime, here’s a brief bit of background on the market and SR 520 construction.

The market and adjacent 76 gas station lie directly along the south edge of the SR 520/Montlake Boulevard interchange. Following the Legislature’s 2015 approval of funding for the Rest of the West improvements, WSDOT furthered the project design and preconstruction planning. Through this effort, we determined that we’d need to acquire the property where the market and gas station are located. In early 2018, we’ll begin constructing an improved interchange and landscaped highway lid from Montlake Boulevard to 24th Avenue Northeast.

Why do we need to acquire the property?

• WSDOT needs the property to build some of the project’s planned improvements, such as retaining walls and fill, sidewalks, connections to shared-use trails, and utility relocations and modifications.  We also will use the property for construction staging and traffic shifts.
• We determined in the 2011 environmental impact statement that we’d have to close three of the four driveway accesses into the gas station. The gas station and market are business tenants on the property. The change in driveway access will affect the operations of both tenants.
• We are in discussions with the property owner regarding WSDOT’s purchase of the site and the operations of the businesses.

We know these businesses are important to many people in the Montlake area. We’ll keep the community updated as this process unfolds.

Construction project time line

A number of individuals at the open house wanted to know when we will start constructing our west side improvements, and when we will complete the work. The schedule for big construction projects can shift for a variety of reasons, but here is our current time line for the Rest of the West:

Phase 1

• Montlake lid, West Approach Bridge South, land bridge over SR 520
• Construction to begin by 2018
• Estimated duration: 4-5 years

Phase 2

• New Portage Bay Bridge with regional bike-pedestrian path, Roanoke lid, improved I-5 interchange, bike-pedestrian I-5 crossing
• Estimated to begin as early as: 2020
• Estimated duration: 6 years

Phase 3

• Second bascule (drawbridge) over Montlake Cut
• Estimated to begin as early as: 2024
• Estimated duration: 3 years