SR 520 Montlake Lid bicycle trail opens to the public

After years of construction, the new bike trail over the Montlake Lid project opened to the public on Saturday.

State officials introduced it and welcomed first-time visitors in an opening ceremony held at 11:00 a.m. Following the ceremony, the trail opened for an inaugural, free, group-bicycle ride and guided tours.

Previous coverage: Bike and pedestrian bridge debuts at Montlake this weekend

The trail on a paved overpass is high above cars traveling at freeway speeds, making their way across the State Route 520 (SR 520) floating bridge. It also connects Washington Park Arboretum trails with the Montlake neighborhood and the University District.

The bridge is part of a highway interchange construction project completed by Graham Construction that cost taxpayers $486 million.

For the first time ever, pedestrians and cyclists had the opportunity to travel the 14-foot-wide paved trail and meander along a grassy three-acre, open-green-space park built on a lid just west of the trail.

Engineers designed the overpass to be 73 feet wide, much larger than the curved bicycle path that winds across the bridge. There are also soil berms built up to a height close to five feet in elevation to help keep freeway noise to a minimum.

Transportation officials said the cost of the lid project was less than $50 million, just a portion of the $486 million cost of the entire project.

According to state officials, the old SR 520 west approach bridge, built in the early 1960s, was constructed on hollow columns and vulnerable to earthquakes. The location of the bridge also split the Montlake community into two halves.

In 2017, a new eastbound bridge opened parallel to the westbound bridge, making travel safer and more reliable.

The next phase of the Montlake Project has already begun with construction on a new addition to eastbound SR 520, with a bridge over Union Bay.

Huge pile drivers tower above the existing bridge, driving support columns into the water that will serve to support massive iron beams comprising the new span.

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An environmental impact statement conducted before construction began included these projects in its analysis. WSDOT refined the project’s final design during that process and held community meetings with local government leaders and design professionals.

The process resulted in some designs being revised to emphasize better travel connections and more usable open space. The changes also led to the inclusion of the bicycle and pedestrian bridge that opened for the first time this weekend.

Tom Brock is a reporter, editor and anchor at KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of Tom’s stories here.