Coal Creek Parkway is in the final paving stages. The Washington State paver has been made available and the asphalt trucks are lined up feeding the hopper. The new May Creek Bridge is just about done as well. Duval Avenue is supposed to open in July. Now I-405 overflow traffic can be backed up in four lanes rather than two.
Some of the Newcastle City Council recently decided it would be too convenient to allow traffic to smoothly flow from Bellevue to Renton and back so they approved an interim “Transit Center.” http://www.newcastletransitcenter.com/
The overhead view on the site shows a big green patch on the left. That’s the one acre site of the new multi use facility that may include a library, city hall, 80 unit low income housing, car wash, sushi bar, post office and disco. No parking.
Hence the requirement for a major bus/transit hub on the corner. Of course the artist’s cartoon on the click thru page makes it look like no cars will be there. The lower photo shows the bus stop as it is now including the back of the sign proclaiming that this is the site of the new library.
Speaking of libraries. Nearby neighbors in Newport Hills are getting a library pretty soon. A market closed not long ago and the Chevron station changed to a new location. Thus the Newport Hillbillies have a spot for a library. Newport Hills is part of Bellevue so it was not hard to get agreements, permits, contracts, designs, books, overdue letterheads, etc. Meanwhile the Newcastle library is still “in its planning stages.”
Soon Newcastle folks can get books at Newport Hills. This may be a bit confusing. Bellevue already has a “Newport Way” library not too far away. This is another example of how challenged people can get over naming stuff. Factoria is the center of the “Newport” name cluster but they didn’t call it “Newport Center” or even “Newport Factoria.”
Newport Hills is south of Factoria, Newport Way runs east from there, and Newport Shores is west. What’s “Newport?” Well, it’s a city in Rhode Island. They have a Bellevue Avenue – so that must be why Bellevue got all Newporty and named a bunch of stuff including a high school “Newport.”
But what about that Transit Center in Newcastle? I almost forgot. This work was initiated by Sound Transit because they got tired of waiting for the Newcastle City Council to agree on a real Transit Center on the shores of Lake Boren. Here’s a case where somebody actually had a name to call the lake.
It looks as if the plan may be to provide bus pockets where they can pull off the street and do the passenger exchanges without impeding traffic. Looks can be deceiving. From the plan view on the above web page it looks more like mostly trees and sidewalk. If they can’t pull off the main traffic lanes then what’s the big improvement?
But the good news is the Washington Mutual Bank has been renamed Chase. That way once you get off the bus and head for McDonald’s you can stop by the bank and pick up some cash. Just don’t wear a hat because it’s not legal to enter a bank with a hat on. Just leave it on the bus.
The point here is that after the transit improvements have been made to Newcastle Way they might begin construction on the new library complex, sans a library since there’s one in Newport Hills. We can’t live without construction.
Meanwhile the Newcastle Think Tank is still working on the conceptual design of the East Lake Boren Transit Center project. It’s pretty much going to remain conceptual for the next decade or so, I imagine.
If you like retaining walls and drainage ponds you should visit the Coal Creek Parkway site in August or later. It’ll all be done except for the stuff that’s not finished. They may rename it the “Newport Connector” or something.
A Note to Readers:
I’m running low on ways to say new things and still provide updates on old things. Municipal projects such as light rail, bus tunnels, and roadway improvements are interesting to me and I like to see what’s going on. After all I’m paying my share of it. But is it still interesting to you? Let me know if you’d like to hear about other kinds of projects. Or projects I haven’t heard about. I’d be just as interested in finding new stuff going on. For example the work on I-405 that’s got the Tukwila (pronounced Tuck-something) stretch all boogered up. Here’s your chance to let me hear from you. How do you like the photo at the top? For example...
Al
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