This morning, City Council Transportation Committee Chair Tom Rasmussen opened a workshop with about 25 people invited by SDOT to brainstorm design input for the redesign of our #1 priority intersection: the 5-way at Chelan, Delridge, Spokane and West Marginal Way SW.
Thank you Council Member Rasmussen for securing funding for design of this challenging project, and SDOT and SvR for getting this diverse group together!
This intersection, and East Marginal Way S are currently the “deal breakers” that prevent willing but wary individuals and families from riding the final 20 minutes to downtown from West Seattle, or making the connection between the Duwamish Trail and the Alki Trail. Changing this will make a huge change for using bikes in West Seattle.
All the ideas we have brought up before were considered, and some really ambitious and creative long term solutions were proposed. Short term and long term solutions will be planned, with initial design proposals back for stakeholder review in about 6 months.
Short term changes could happen fairly soon. The ultimate project will take years for full development, because, as Council Member Rasmussen noted, every mode of transportation uses this spot, including pedestrians, bike riders, cars, buses, freight trucks, fire engines, trains and ships. Well, maybe not airplanes, but most everything else.
The group included representatives from SvR Design, Port of Seattle, shipping companies, Seattle Fire Department, METRO Transit, Heffron transportation consultants, North Delridge Community Association, Seattle Bike Advisory Board, Feet First, UW, Cascade Bicycle Club, and West Seattle Bike Connections, and SDOT’s traffic, bike/ped, signalization, and freight mobility groups. SDOT staff include a number who live in West Seattle and bike through this intersection regularly.
Don Brubeck and Bob Winship represented WSBC