Residents and other interested parties will have more chances to help guide a proposed project to add a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane on Bellevue Way Southeast (video).

An open house for the Bellevue Way Southeast Southbound HOV Lane project will run 5:30-7:30 p.m. April 5, at Enatai Elementary School, 10700 SE 25th St. If locals can’t make it in person, they’re invited to participate in an online open house through 5 p.m. April 19.

The goal of the project is to reduce congestion and improve transit reliability and access to Sound Transit’s future South Bellevue light rail station and to the Interstate 90 HOV lanes. The lane would reduce travel time for HOV and transit users by moving more people through the corridor.

Both the in-person and online open houses will feature the project’s preliminary design and updated cost estimates. It’s also an opportunity to let city officials know whether you support the project’s proposed construction phasing approach.

If fully funded, the work would include a new 12-foot-wide, southbound HOV lane, two 11-foot-wide travel lanes to replace the existing ones and a five-foot wide planter at the base of a retaining wall. It would run from just north of the “Y” intersection at 112th Avenue Southeast to the future South Bellevue light rail station (formerly a park-and-ride lot). There, it would connect to the section of Bellevue Way, including an HOV lane that extends to I-90, which will be built by Sound Transit.

The timing of the project will depend on future decisions by the City Council on the project’s direction and funding. The current estimated construction cost of the project from the Winters House to the South Bellevue light rail station is $22 million; the estimated cost for the full project, from just north of the “Y” intersection to the light rail station is $34 million.

This will be the third project open house since January 2017.