The terrible detour around the Airport Way Bridge at the north end of Georgetown is almost at an end. The city will celebrate the grand opening of the reconstructed bridge at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
There are no bike lanes included in the bridge (which is very unfortunate), but it simply being open will do wonders for people biking in the area. As we wrote earlier today, Airport Way is an excellent opportunity for future bike facilities. While it would have been best to redesign the street while the bridge was closed, there is no reason why it should not be a priority project for the city going forward. The Bicycle Master Plan draft recommends a cycle track from downtown to Georgetown (and beyond).
Details on the bridge opening from the city:
Join the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to celebrate the completion and grand re-opening of the Airport Way South Viaduct!
Come help us celebrate and:
- Hear from the Mayor, City Staff and the Community who helped make this project happen.
- Shake hands with the contractor.
- Join your neighbors for an inaugural cutting of the ribbon.
The event will be held this Friday, December 21, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. at the south approach to the viaduct near Airport Way S and S Lucile Street.
Comments
8 responses to “Airport Way Bridge grand opening is Friday”
Yes! It’s been so long. I’m done riding over Beacon Hill to get to Georgetown.
at long last! sucks not to have the bike lanes, but the did improve southbound bike lanes once over the bridge and going through georgetown.
In my opinion, the bigger issue is down by boeing field where there is no shoulder and no lights, and the only other choice is E Marginal way which has a great bike lane that ends abruptly at boeing hq.
love commuting airport way, it’s a great route.
Rad!! Feels like it’s taken years! Airport way is like a superhighway for biking to downtown for me, I’ve missed it so much. Yes, a bike lane would’ve been very appropriate, as it’s a major truck route and a bit disconcerting when a semi blows by you next to the curb, but I don’t care, I will still be flying down that sweet smooth asphalt!!
That was incredibly short sighted not to include a bike lane each way over that bridge. Yes Airport way down past the South end of the airport needs a shoulder or bike lane as well, but when we had the chance to put in a piece of the puzzle we should have done it. ugh…. Chicago is going to eat our lunch..
We’ll just have to add safe bike space on the bridge when we do the whole street…
“Chicago is going to eat our lunch..”
As a Chicagoland native I’m enjoying this image of Rahm Emanuel pillaging the Pacific Northwest… in the first installment he was Conan the Barbarian, now he takes on the role of Kahl Drogo…
And to Zacharia, son of Rahm, the Stallion who will Mount the Bicycle, to him I also pledge a gift. To him I will give the steel chair Mike McGinn sat in. I will give him seven hills. I, Rahm Emanuel, will do this thing! I will take my cyclists west to where the plain ends, and ride the carbon-fiber horses across the great Cascade mountains as no midwestern mayor has done before. I will kill the cyclists in the yellow rainjackets, and tear down their floating bridges. I will steal their jobs, put their children in cars, and bring their shattered frames back to the Merchandise Mart, to bow down beneath the Mother of Cycletracks. This I vow, I, Rahm son of Benjamin. This I swear before the Mother of Cycletracks, as the smog looks down in witness.
One of the few places that I always take the sidewalk…of course it is usually at 2:30 AM!
D
yay!! rode over it (in a car!) today for the first time since, gotta get the bike out. happy happy joy joy. UPS and FedEx must be so damn happy… I’ve got to try the 106 these days