The University of Washington did not win the extremely competitive TIGER grant from the Federal government to rehab and widen the Burke-Gilman Trail through their campus.
However, they of course have not given up, with UW’s Commute Options Manager Celeste Gilman saying that they are “actively working on Plan B.”
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The university was seeking $12 million so they could remake the entire length of the trail through their campus at once instead of doing it in phases over many years (with significantly more closures and detours).
However, the region did fairly well in the TIGER grants, with Sound Transit winning two big grants totaling $24 million.
Comments
4 responses to “No TIGER grant for the Burke-Gilman through UW”
This is disappointing to say the least. The plans for this project are gorgeous and completing it quickly would set a standard for the whole trail.
Disappointing, sure. It wouldn’t kill us to work on alternate east-west routes, of course — if we’re really going to triple our number of bike trips through there we’ll need them!
Totally agree. The Burke-Gilman is great, and I totally support the upgrades, but having other good/excellent bike routes nearby is arguably more important at this stage. Nearby routes increase access other amenities and can grow ridership dramatically more through the network effect.
TIGER grants are a battle of patience. Some of the projects that received funds this year are on their 3rd and even 4th year of TIGER applications. I would bet if they apply again next year they will get the funds.