Client: City of Kirkland
Duration: 2018 – 2019
The City of Kirkland reviewed options to provide a useful multimodal transportation connection between the future I-405 bus rapid transit (BRT) station at NE 85th St and downtown Kirkland. With the arrival of the new BRT station in the near future, the local transit authority, Sound Transit, is collaborating with the City to construct an improved connection and/or an enhanced transit connection along this corridor. There is currently not a safe, convenient and comfortable way to travel between these two locations; nor locations in between these two nodes, such as the Cross Kirkland Corridor (CKC) and other potential development parcels.
V+M was retained by the City of Kirkland to carry out a Feasibility Study for pedestrian and cycling connections along the NE 85th Street corridor, between the future BRT station at NE 85th Street / I-405 and NE 85th Street / 6th Street. The study evaluated alignment and profile options of an ADA-compliant transitway that could accommodate small shuttle vehicles in addition to pedestrians and cyclists. The concept trail alignment is routed along the south slope below NE 85th Street with a direct connection to the CKC. The pathway then utilizes a spiral tower to achieve the required elevation gain, and a single-sided arch span crosses the CKC. The study analyzed the feasibility of these concepts for various widths and provided rough order of magnitude cost estimates.
