The Bellevue Transportation Commission is passing along its recommendations for transportation project priorities to the City Council for consideration during its May 19 budget hearing.
Commissioners unanimously approved revised transportation improvement and capital investment program recommendations to council on Thursday, April 10 after a public hearing where residents voiced their opinions about what needs fixing in the city.
There are 81 projects proposed under the 2015-20 Transportation Improvement Program, with outstanding issues including extending Northeast Sixth Street as a high-occupancy vehicle lane from I-405 to 120th Avenue Northeast.
Joe Pham, president of the Monthaven Association and representing several other Bellevue neighborhoods, told commissioners they want the city to prioritize adding sidewalk to a 0.9-mile stretch of Newport Way deemed unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists. There are more than 40 areas in need of sidewalks listed in the Transportation Improvement Program, said Kristi Oosterveen, TIP program administrator.
East Bellevue Community Council member Steve Kasner, pushed for replacing three traffic signals along 148th Avenue Northeast that have been there since the 1970s. Eric Miller, capital programming manager for the city transportation department, said these projects would fall under the Capital Investment Proposal’s (CIP) Major Maintenance Program.
As part of the commission’s approval of the TIP, Commissioner Vic Bishop added as a priority a $200,000 north corridor study in the Bellevue Way area of the city.
The 2015-2021 Capital Investment Proposal retains 39 projects in the current CIP, with 26 “discrete” projects. Of those projects, there are 11 proposals being developed, said Miller, including Phase 2 of the West Lake Sammamish Parkway, design planning and the Eastside Rail Corridor plan.
Expected to be a highly political discussion, Miller said, is whether the city should add to an HOV lane on Bellevue Way to be constructed by the state transportation department near the South Bellevue Park and Ride, which will eventually be replaced with a light rail transit station.
Miller said staff has identified three new proposals that include station area plan improvements for when Sound Transit places several transit stations in the city that will allow for “placeholder funding” for those projects. Another proposal is for a Bel-Red local street network identification project. The last is whether to continue maintaining the city’s last gravel road or to close Cougar Mountain Way and turn it into a trail.
To catch up on all the projects being proposed, check out the proposals online:
