A heavily used .9-mile section of Newport Way Southeast from Southeast Allen Road to 150th Ave SE lacks sidewalks and bike lanes. Car traffic volumes average 7,000 cars a day. Newport Way Library and South Bellevue Community Center as well as Aldersgate United Methodist Church and Children’s Preschool are located along this stretch. Yet, there is no safe way to walk or bicycle to these facilities or to nearby schools. The existing shoulder shrinks to 18 inches in some places.

Two years ago this area of was annexed into Bellevue and the City of Bellevue recognized the need for sidewalks and bike lanes, but there has been no funding of this project. Concerned residents organized early this year to lobby for high priority for this project in the 2015-2022 Capital Investment Project. We created a dynamic website, www.newportwaysidewalk.org, detailing our activities, our concerns and our endorsements for the project. We have testified regularly at Transportation Commission meetings and at Bellevue City Council meetings with our supporters sporting our signature fluorescent green shirts.

We will turn out again on Nov. 17 at 8 pm at the Council’s final budget hearing of the year to highlight the critical need for sidewalks on this heavily used road.

Kristi Weir, Newport Way Sidewalk Committee