Shoreline secures funding for I-5 bike & ped. bridge

The following article is from The Urbanist It has been edited slightly for length.

Shoreline has been awarded a $20 million grant that will significantly aid the City’s efforts to improve transportation access to Shoreline South light rail station. The grant, awarded as part of the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program, will allow the city to progress with funding a planned bike and pedestrian bridge directly connecting transit riders on the west side of the highway with the light rail station, and providing a route across south Shoreline for everyone. Delays in funding the bridge mean that it isn’t expected to open until 2026, approximately two years after light rail trains begin serving the station just east of I-5 at NE 148th Street.

“Shoreline is constantly growing — and supporting this effort has been a longtime priority of mine, so I am really excited for Sound Transit to open its newest Link light rail station,” Senator Patty Murray said in a statement announcing Washington’s RAISE grant awards, which total almost $133 million. “We have to make sure that pedestrians, cyclists, and people using wheelchairs can safely access the new station, and this grant will go a long way towards making that happen.”

The $20 million awarded is $5 million less than Shoreline had requested from USDOT when it applied for the grant earlier this year [2023]. The City was already planning to provide a local match of $7.7 million, according to the grant application, submitted inFebruary, 2023. Representative Pramila Jayapal, visiting the site of the future bridge in spring 2023, previously secured $4 million in this year’s federal budget. The city will now have to find an additional $5 million to make up for the funding shortfall..

In addition to the I-5 pedestrian bridge, funds from the grant will aid in Shoreline’s goal of expanding the 145th Street corridor, also known as State Route 523, between I-5 and the Interurban Trail, just west of Aurora Avenue North. Property acquisition along the first phase of that project, between I-5 and Corliss Ave North, has already begun.

The RAISE grant will provide funds to widen the street to add a center turn lane, ADA compliant sidewalks, and space for greenery. (City of Shoreline)

Despite plans to widen 145th, space for safe bike facilities isn’t being made on the street, which is where a planned “off-corridor bike network” comes in, taking the form of neighborhood greenways connecting the Interurban Trail, the I-5 bridge, and bike routes south in Seattle. Collectively, all of these projects around the light rail station are being called the “West Side Transformation,” with the goal of making it easier to get around in an area with 4,000 new units of housing either open or in permitting or construction, with the potential to accommodate 20,000 new households in the area around the station longer-term.

Shoreline Mayor Keith Scully called the grant a “game changer” for the city. “[The grant] will allow us to complete our vision for the 145th Corridor, creating safe, reliable multimodal connections to the Shoreline South/148th light rail station,” he said in a statement released by Senator Cantwell’s office.

Work on the 145th Street corridor is expected to continue past 2029 as Shoreline tackles widening the street in three phases. Phase 1, already fully funded, is heading toward construction now.

Shoreline’s significant award will advance a number of the city’s goals around improving access to light rail and other sustainable transportation infrastructure all at once, and represents a major accomplishment for Seattle’s neighbor to the north.

More details on the 148th Street bridge projects at the City of Shoreline site.