Green Lake Work Wraps Up

Neighbors living near Green Lake have endured several months of street realignments, curbing improvements, repaving and lane restriping. Now, an end is finally in sight. And in another news item from SDOT, West Green Lake Way will remain shut to cars for the foreseeable future.

East Green Lake Way Improvements

A recent email from SDOT announced:

We are beginning to paint the final lane stripes on N 80th St and E Green Lake Way N next week! Striping on N 80th St is expected to begin on May 12 and take less than a week to complete. Once we complete N 80th St, we will immediately begin striping E Green Lake Way N.

This work is highly weather-dependent, and the schedule is subject to change.

Indeed, in a bike trip I took last Monday around the east side of Green Lake, the striping work was ongoing. Flaggers were out in areas where traffic was reduced to one lane. Temporary arrows had been spray painted on the new, two-way bike lane running along the inside of East Green Lake Way. Paving is complete, a vast improvement to conditions over prior weeks which featured broken pavement, loose gravel and plenty of dust.

Here’s a brief listing, from SDOT, of the changes made during the course of this long project:

• Building a 2-way protected bike lane around the Lake, which will transition to 1-way bike lanes at the intersection of W Green Lake Way N and E Green Lake Way N (near the Pitch and Putt) and extend to N 46th St
• Improving the intersection of W Green Lake Way N and E Green Lake Way N (near the Pitch and Putt), which includes adding a new signal that will improve wait times by over 2.5 minutes
•  Making the intersection of NE Ravenna Blvd, NE 71st St, and E Green Lake Way N more predictable. We’ll “square up” the intersection as much as possible by adding curb bulbs and widening the west-side sidewalks. We’re also adding a rapid flashing beacon one block south of the intersection to improve safety for people crossing
• Parking removal on the east side of Stone Way N between N 45th St and N 50th St, as well as at key intersections around the lake to accommodate new lane layouts
• More than 180 upgraded or new curb ramps

More details are available here on the Green Lake and Wallingford Paving & Multi-Modal Improvements website.

West Green Lake Way Closure

As most of you know, West Green Lake Way has been closed to vehicle traffic since the start of covid and converted to a “Stay Healthy, Keep Moving Street.”  At the same time, bikes were banned from the Green Lake multi-use path, and pedestrian traffic on the lake path was encouraged to move only counter-clockwise. (Signs dictating that direction of travel seem to have disappeared in recent months.) Now, the closure of W Green Lake Way – while not necessarily permanent – seems likely to persist through the summer although the closure point has been moved north a bit to allow access to some important parking lots.

According to SDOT:

“We’re modifying the Green Lake Keep Moving Street to maintain parking lot access, make for a clearer, safer, and more predictable experience, and reconnect Woodland and Green Lake parks.  The section of W Green Lake Way N between N 63rd St and the off-leash parking lot will be completely closed to people driving. Drivers can still enter and exit the Lower Woodland tennis court and off-leash parking lots from E Green Lake Way.”

For a little more information, consult this SDOT blog post.