Redmond’s facelift nearly complete
Jul 25, 2017, 6:31 AM | Updated: 10:38 am
Downtown Redmond has been torn up for more than a year as the city completes its transformation from a quaint, historic city into a vibrant new neighborhood.
The city has added about 1,000 people a year since 2000. Its population is well over 60,000 today, and it’s estimated to grow to nearly 80,000 by 2030.
The downtown core has been under construction for years, where old buildings have been replaced by new apartments, and the quaint feel of Redmond has been transformed into an urban village.
The final pieces of this rebirth are underway now. One of the biggest components is turning the main east-west streets — Cleveland Avenue and Redmond Way — back into two-way streets.
“The two-way street system actually allows us to curb out our intersections,” Senior Projects Manager Lisa Singer said. “The pedestrian crossings are more visible. They’re shorter. It makes them a lot safer and more walkable, and accessible.”
That conversion to two-way traffic should be finished by the end of the year.
Signer said it’s been a challenge making this move while keeping the streets open.
“We’re at eleven intersections downtown working under active traffic,” she said. “We have to rebuild all the traffic signal systems.”
Another key component of the new downtown is a new park on the western edge of the historic downtown.
“The park is located in what is the center of where all the growth is going to be, and it’s adjacent to the historic core so it kind of continues that celebration of our past and makes it an easy, accessible location for people to come,” Singer said.
It features a small amphitheater and a splash park.
Economic Development Manager Jill Smith is hoping this final piece of downtown will attract even more people to the city.
“Construction is challenging on our businesses,” Smith said. “We’ve been working with them closely the last couple of years, doing a lot of buy-local campaigns and marketing on behalf of our downtown businesses, but what a celebration this is going to be when construction is done.”
And then all that’s left to complete the Redmond renovation is to welcome Sound Transit light rail. It’s scheduled to arrive in 2023, and Smith says that will finally connect Redmond to the rest of the Puget Sound region.
“We’re now connected to the region by a specific number of minutes,” Smith said. “It’s no longer a variable, based on the traffic.”
Sound Transit is expecting 10-minute rides between Redmond and Bellevue and 30-minute rides back and forth to Seattle.
