King County Superior Court threw out appeals by Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel and other Ballard businesses Friday, removing one more hurdle to completing the Burke-Gilman trail through Ballard.

Last summer, the court sided with Cascade Bicycle Club and the city on eight of nine legal challenges brought by these Ballard businesses. The one remaining challenge mandated that the city complete an environmental review of the 0.3 miles of Shilshole where the future trail will be built. After that ruling, the Salmon Bay S&G and friends appealed the court’s ruling on the other eight legal challenges.

Cascade reports on its blog that Friday, King County Superior Court threw out the appeals on those eight challenges. The court action on the part of these businesses basically amounts to delay tactics as they try to block and delay the completion of this much-needed trail as much as possible.

The court action has been very expensive for the city and Cascade Bicycle Club. San Francisco is trying to recoup court costs from a legal battle meant to delay the city’s bike plan. Perhaps, once the B-G plans go through, the city and Cascade will be able to recoup some of their expenses from these business groups whose clear intention is merely to delay implementation of this path.

Cascade also reports that the environmental review is nearing completion:

As for the status of the project, it is our understanding that the required additional environmental review is almost complete and that the city is looking at issuing a new threshold determination on full project, including the so-called permanent route on Shilshole Ave NW, by sometime in December.

From there we will likely have to go before the Hearing Examiner once again and then back to Judge Rogers courtroom.