The Bellevue City Council has approved the eastern part of the SR 520 Floating Bridge replacement. We call it the Evergreen Point Bridge and sometimes the sinking pontoon bridge.
The Bellevue approved side has six lanes and lots of room. We talked about it last time. Car pools will be able to go from Medina to Redmond.
Seattle has been looking at the other end. The western end of the bridge connects to Montlake. Seattle is concerned. The new mayor has noticed.
The three proposals (see http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR520Bridge ) are A, K, and L. You can watch simulations with the annoying new age music.
All three options include six lanes. Two general purpose and one HOV lane in each direction. Plus shoulders and a bike/pedestrian path. They also include a lid over I-5 and a couple more lids. That means covered roadways with parks on top for all you country folk who are not used to big cities.
The main differences are: Option A has an interchange at Montlake Blvd. with a new drawbridge parallel to the existing one. It’s called a “bascule” or something. It’s a drawbridge. Odd words don’t improve the concept. Option K moves that whole interchange east and uses a tunnel under the Montlake cut. Option L avoids the tunnel but adds a new bascule (drawbridge) over the Montlake cut.
All three options will require quite a bit of work on the north side of the Montlake cut. That’s because there’s a university there with under a dozen sports venues. Everyone has to get to class and/or ball games at certain times so it takes lots of roadway.
In case you don’t know what a Montlake cut is here’s how it came about.
Way back in the old days when Newcastle was a coal mining area Lake Washington ran out at Renton into the Black River, Duwamish, and then into Elliott Bay. Lake Union was inaccessible to ships at the time. Both lakes are remnants of the ice ages and quite deep. However their drainage was not deep enough for commercial navigation even way back then. I remember it well.
Seattle had two major industries back then. One was timber and the other was coal. Both required large capacity shipping to reach lucrative markets such as California. Imagine: California bought our stuff for lots of money. Now they’re broke.
The shipping docks were in Seattle on Elliott Bay. That’s still a major shipping port and one of our challenges even today is moving the goods close enough to the port to load on ships. But that’s another story.
Transporting timber from the hills and coal from the mines to Elliott Bay was a costly proposition. Coal from Newcastle came down to Lake Washington via trams. It was loaded onto barges for the slow trip to Montlake. At Montlake it was again loaded onto trams for the trip to Lake Union. After the barge ride across Lake Union it was loaded onto rail cars for the short trip to Elliott Bay. Then it was loaded onto cargo ships to be distributed to places like San Francisco. All that loading and unloading seemed excessive as well as expensive. At Elliott Bay the cost of a ton of coal had already increased 50%. By 1880 The Washington Standard estimated that more than 500,000 tons of coal had been exported from Seattle in the previous nine years. That’s a lot of loading and unloading.
Traveling out of Lake Washington via the Black River to get to Elliott Bay was a bad option and unreliable. The south end of the lake was shallow and swampy. Kind of set the stage for the Renton we know so well today.
Thomas Mercer proposed a navigable passage between Lake Washington and Puget Sound in 1854. His proposal is the route eventually chosen via Montlake to Shilshole Bay. He even suggested the lake in between be called “Union” as it would be a key link in the proposed waterway. As punishment they named Mercer Island after him.
Around 1860 Harvey Pike dug a ditch through Montlake to permit passage of logs. The Pike Place Market, Pike Place, and Pike Street are named after him. Pike was into logging and naming stuff.
After a many years of back and forth the Ship Canal project was finally approved in 1910. Seattle’s mayors randomly opposed and supported the project somewhat as they do today with major transportation projects. History repeats itself all over again.
The Corps of Engineers built the Ship Canal linking the two lakes to a dam and lock near Shilshole in 1916. It was named after the General in charge, Hiram Ship Canal. No, no, no, the structure was named the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. Some of us call it the Ballard Locks because frankly Hiram’s name is kind of long.
After construction a temporary dam holding back Lake Washington was breached lowering the water level nine feet. The Black River in Renton nearly dried up.
The Cedar River was changed to empty into Lake Washington and the Green/Duwamish flow was greatly reduced since that water was now going through the Ship Canal. Very few people remember these things but today in Renton the area near the sewage treatment plant is still called the “Black River.” Some people think it’s because of the sewage plant. It’s not. Sometimes history plays its own little jokes.
The big impact was the disruption of salmon runs. That’s another story. Today we’d never be allowed to build anything that would have a major impact on salmon.
OK, so now we have a nice deep shipping channel that allows some fairly large ocean going boats and ships to reach Lakes Union and Washington. In 1963 the highway department builds a floating bridge across Lake Washington south of the Montlake cut. The University of Washington is north of the cut. To get to a Husky game you need to use the Montlake Drawbridge. See the issue? When a big boat requires the bridge to open the football traffic gets backed up to Bellevue.
Now in 2010 we have Option K for replacement of the floating bridge with its UW tunnel that goes under the cut. It comes up near the sports venues. No more backups when the old Montlake bridge opens. The new backups will be because the new light rail station has taken over the parking lot.
Oh, wait. Very few large boats use the cut any more. Mostly its private sailboats with tall masts that require a bridge to open. It takes a lot of moxie for one lone dude to just slide up and require the drawbridge to open and back up traffic for miles in every direction. But tunnels cost more money.
We’re not done. Seattle wants to make the HOV lanes dedicated to transit only. They’re also saying it should include light rail tracks in preparation for future expansion. The point is apparently to discourage more vehicles coming into Seattle. If more people need to get to Seattle they should take transit, is how the argument goes.
Too many cars and too few parking spaces in Seattle. Take the bus. Ride the rails. Bike to work. Free Willy. All slogans trying to get us to leave our personal heaps in our own home parking areas.
OK, done. I got my ORCA pass and downloaded the bus schedule to my iPod so now I should be Good-To-Go. I just don’t have any idea why I’d want to go into downtown Seattle.
Today’s edition took a lot of research and time. Some of the historical stuff came from serious people who actually try to get their facts straight. So I want some appreciation. If you read this you might have learned something you didn’t know. That’s my bonus to you.
Al
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Two Cities - No Waiting
The approaches to the bridge are also being revised with park like lids and direct HOV access ramps. The existing bridge will be towed to Kirkland where it will reside on the waterfront with flower shops and microbreweries on top.
One minor goal is to provide HOV from Medina to SR202. No idea why people in Medina would want to go to SR202.
The new bridge will have tolls but we don’t know yet if they will be variable or fixed price. However we do know there won’t be any toll booth. Everyone who uses the bridge will need a Good-To-Go transponder. It’s like the EZ-Pass in other places. The same company will be administering the system. You just zip under the detector and the state deducts the toll from the real owner’s account.
This is a new opportunity for you to buy my genuine fake Good-To-Go transponder. I’ll even customize it for you. Just send me $39.95 and a couple hundred for shipping and handling and you’ll get an exact replica of an actual pass except it won’t do anything. It just makes the patrol think you have a real pass. I promise that you’ll save lots of money with it. Unless you have to pay fines for having a fake pass. That’s why I’ll customize it – keeps me out of trouble.
And you I-90 bridge users may not be off the hook. WashDOT says if too many people stop using SR520 and go to the free I-90 bridge they’ll add tolls to it too. Just saying – you need my fake transponder.
On the light rail front Bellevue is considering yet another revised route. We have this neighborhood called “Surrey Downs” just south of the business core that wants nothing to do with living in a big city. That’s why people move there – close to Bellevue yet not close to Bellevue. Anyway, they don’t want a light rail near their neighborhood. They have managed to raise a huge protest and now Sound Transit and Bellevue are actually paying attention.
Hear that Renton? If you raise enough dust maybe Sound Transit might remember your existence and plan a light rail to Renton. Just a thought.
Bellevue has also gotten word that mankind is no longer with us. In an oddly worded headline the Bellevue Reporter says: “Investigation continues into the death of Man.” As the line in the Monty Python movie goes, “I’m not dead yet!”
Bellevue has several red light cameras to catch folks scooting through after the yellow is long gone. Some places in Bellevue you can sit at the intersection and see four or five bright flashes on each light change. I got in the habit of stopping for yellow years ago. When I got my first license the booklet said the yellow light meant it was about to go red so you should stop. So I do. In Bellevue people have actually swerved around me just so they could run the red light before the cross traffic got going.
Now they’re adding more red light cameras. Next time you’re in Bellevue and see flashes at intersections its Bellevue cashing in. It’ll be years before everyone is trained that yellow means stop.
Newcastle News has a headline that says “Council Green Lights Sports Park Plan.” No red light cameras in Newcastle. The new sports park is just south of May Creek. People will have another reason to go over the new May Creek Bridge besides the Renton Wal-Mart.
The new sports park will have softball and Little League fields and two play areas. The final phases will include synthetic soccer fields. Not enough room for a real soccer field? How does one play synthetic soccer? Is it like fantasy football?
Newcastle is also replacing some of the new park signs they’re so proud of. The park signs were too big and people couldn’t see around them to check for traffic before leaving the park.
Newcastle has this new color scheme for signs that’s kind of a green on green motif. The big N in Newcastle is formed by a dark green square and two light green artsy leaves. Very high class.
Slowly street signs and other city installed signs will be converted to the green on green motif. Good places to hide red light cameras.
Wait! I just realized why my fake Good-To-Go pass won’t work – if you drive under the detector and it doesn’t detect a valid pass you’ll get photographed. Boy will that ticket be expensive. So heck, there goes that opportunity. Just send me the $39.95 and don’t worry about shipping and handling fee because I won’t be sending you anything.
Reminds me of an old Dragnet show – Sgt Friday was investigating a scam in which a guy ran an ad in the Los Angeles newspaper (remember newspaper ads?) that said last chance to send $5 to a post office box. No mention of why. The box was overflowing. In those days it was considered illegal – now just its politics as usual.
The green on green showing a coating of blue
Al
Friday, January 22, 2010
Omen for the Decade
Snow Geese on Skagit Flats
On the first day of 2010 we saw an omen. We were cruising along I-405 on a hardware store errand. Traffic was very light since most of you were home watching the Rose Parade.
As the designated driver I was keeping a sharp eye out for hazards. In the road ahead I spotted what might be road kill. But it looked different. It seemed taller than your normal pancake possum.
As I calmly approached I saw that the lump was actually two varmints. One was a furry and the other was a red tail hawk holding it down. He was in my lane. The hawk looked me right in the eye. Hawks have very good eye sight so I know he recognized me.
I’m a pal. I feed ‘em. I watch ‘em. I don’t hurt ‘em on purpose. He looked at me and held on to his varmint. I passed about two feet away at 65 mph and when I checked my mirror he was still there.
But I don’t know what the omen portends.
Which brings us to the annual eagle trip. Every year we try to visit the eagles on the Skagit River because eagles are majestic. They sometimes put on a show. On this trip it was particularly rainy and foggy.
On the way back we decided to try the Barlow Pass route. It had been closed for several years due to sliding into the Sauk River. The Sauk has eagles but not as many as the Skagit.
The road to Barlow Pass from Darrington turns into gravel and is only one lane wide in many places. On this day it also had snow and ice as well as rocks in a couple places. It’s steep too. Remembering the hawk I held on.
We made it to the pass and down to Granite Falls just fine. No worries.
If you’re not familiar with the eagles on the Skagit you should Google images of “Skagit River Eagles.” Plenty of good photos. We haven’t done the raft trip version yet. At some point that might be interesting. I don’t know how they keep warm in the raft. It just looks like a cold wet place to be.
Back in Newcastle they announced the ground will break for the new library this year. Actually it’s already broken. The construction company doing the street for the interim transit center has parked a lot of orange machines along the edge. Inevitably somebody managed to break the library ground.
Before the road work for bus transit we had a right turn lane going into the Safeway strip mall parking lot. We lost that lane. So I was right about the plan posted on the internet that I thought did nothing to make the roadway wider. It didn’t. After the busses finally begin to use the new bus stop we’ll have to find a different way to get into the parking area from Newcastle Way. I wonder if anyone thought about that.
Watch for more omens in the coming months.
Al
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