UW pans plan for Portage Bay bridge

Saturday, October 22, 2005

UW pans plan for Portage Bay bridge
University officials say it could hinder campus growth

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

University of Washington officials are expressing opposition to a proposal for a new bridge over Portage Bay, connecting a rebuilt Evergreen Point Bridge to a busy intersection at Husky Stadium.

The bay bridge, which would be part of a completely new state Route 520 bridge crossing Lake Washington, would eliminate the current Montlake Interchange and add a six-lane interchange adjacent to the Washington Park Arboretum.

The interchange, using the bay bridge, would connect to the UW campus at Husky Stadium, where the Montlake-Pacific Street interchange would be expanded and rebuilt below current grade, she said.

Traffic from the north would no longer use the Montlake Bridge to reach 520, but one lane would be added in each direction on Montlake Boulevard between Northeast Pacific Street and Northeast 45th Street, Doherty said. A lane also would be added to Pacific near University Medical Center.

This could constrict the UW's ability to expand, said Theresa Doherty, UW vice president for regional affairs. "We have a limited amount of space to continue to meet the (university's) needs, to develop new buildings and new programs.

"We have a concern over the new Arboretum bridge, because there's an obvious increase in traffic volume that would affect not only the university and our operations but the local streets, the neighborhood, as well."

The UW says state studies estimate that traffic volumes on campus-area streets and in some nearby neighborhoods would increase up to 49 percent if the bay bridge and the larger intersection were built.

Neighbors south of the Montlake Cut, in the Shelby-Hamlin area, would benefit, seeing a 46 percent decrease in traffic volume.

Doherty said the university hasn't offered a design of its own for the intersection, the subject of considerable discussion as part of the proposed replacement of the bridge.

She said the UW does support including car pool-bus lanes on the new span and thinks the new pontoons should be heavy enough to support "high-capacity transit," such as commuter trains.

The design worrying the UW differs from one presented early this year by community activists that had a suspension bridge over the bay and a tunnel connection to it from the stadium.

Doherty said the university has expressed its concerns about the intersection to the state. UW officials are preparing to declare their preferred alternative for the new bridge design early next year and complete an initial environmental impact statement by May.

Construction would not start until after 2009.

The current bridge, completed in 1963, has lanes and sidewalks but no shoulders or bicycle lanes.

The state is studying two replacement options, one with four lanes, the other with six lanes, including two for car pools and buses, and "lids" reconnecting several neighborhoods.

Both designs include shoulders, storm-water treatment, sound walls and bicycle-pedestrian paths.

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