Pacific Northwest - OlyWa riders: bridge question

Anyone riding in the Olympia, WA, area: do you know when they are planning to complete the new bridge over I-5 that connects the Chehelis Western Trail with the southern section of the trail?

"We're anticipating mid- to late January, but at this point, because of the weather, we haven't established the actual opening date," said Neal Uhlmeyer, project engineer for the state Department of Transportation, which is managing the project.

The organizer of the ribbon-cutting ceremony is looking at Feb. 17 as a likely date, said Thera Black, senior planner for the Thurston Regional Planning Council.

http://www.theolympian.com/112/story/57539.html

Thanks! This is great news!

I'm on the Olympia BPAC, and I just heard the other day that the grand opening has been pushed back to Feb. 17th or 24th. I'll post if I hear something definate. There still won't be a bridge over Martin Way or Pacific for a while though.

Um, er, I'm confused. A grand opening w/o a bridge?

Bridge only goes over I-5 right now. Actually I don't know what it goes *to* (it goes *from* the intersection of the Target parking lot w/ the I-5 bike trail). Some part of the C-W trail that goes to Martin Way, I guess? Then you would have to go up or down to catch a light at Lilly or Sleater-Kinney and then back again to find the next leg of the C-W trail?

I just got an email that the grand opening is scheduled for Feb. 17th at 2pm in the South Sound Center parking lot. They also mentioned they are working on securing the rest of the funding for the Pacific Ave & Martin Way bridges. They've got about $8 million of the $11 million that they need.

I think the bridge is just about done now. All the pavement around it is done anyway, can ride under the underpass, can ride up onto it from the South Sound Center, not sure about if you can get off it at the other end though.

The bridge itself appears complete now, and today I noticed they are clearing the brush from the old railbed at the edge of the South Sound Center lot. I assume this will be the approach to the bridge.

I believe I heard, last night, that the grand opening would be next Monday, which would allow certain people to attend. 2:00 PM. This came from the pres of capital bike club.

Date changed - just got this email:

From: Thera Black [mailto:blackvt@trpc.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 1:39 PM
Subject: Ribbon Cutting - Date Change!!
Importance: High


WSDOT has changed the date of the ribbon cutting ceremony for the I-5 bridge. A schedule conflict came up for Congressman Baird and he could not make the event on Saturday. He really wanted to be a part of it and asked WSDOT to change the date. It has been moved to Monday, the 19th (Presidents Day). Same time as before, at 2:00.

I know that this creates issues for some organizations that have tried valiantly to schedule supporting events around this elusive ribbon cutting celebration. You must be frustrated. I'm genuinely sorry for the inconvenience. I know that our partners at WSDOT struggled with the issue but ultimately felt they needed to accommodate Congressman Baird's request. He has been instrumental in securing funds for the other two bridges in the "Bridging the Gap" project.

If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. You can also contact the event organizer directly. Her name is Debbie Clemen. Her phone number is 360.704.3204 and her email is clemend@wsdot.wa.gov. And know that her frustration is probably a bit higher than all the rest of our's at this point.

Thank you for your patience and support.

I hope to see every one of you on the 19th!

Thera

Thera Black
Thurston Regional Planning Council
2424 Heritage Court SW, Ste A
Olympia, WA 98502
360.956.7575 ext 2545 (phone)
360.956.7815 (fax)
www.trpc.org

It's open:

http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/66342.html

It's open:

http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/66342.html

I saw that on my way down to Portland a couple of weeks ago--it barely looked ready then. I'm glad to see it's officially open.

East Hill

Bridge only goes over I-5 right now. Actually I don't know what it goes *to* (it goes *from* the intersection of the Target parking lot w/ the I-5 bike trail). Some part of the C-W trail that goes to Martin Way, I guess? Then you would have to go up or down to catch a light at Lilly or Sleater-Kinney and then back again to find the next leg of the C-W trail?

The bridge goes from the North West corner of the mall parking lot over I-5 and comes out at Martin Way about midway between Lilly Rd & Sleater Kenney Rd. You can cross Martin Way there by using the two way lane(4 lanes with a 2 way left turning lane in the middle) or go to either nearby intersection to cross with a light, then come back. The Northern part of the Chehalis Western trail begins at this point & runs North to Woodard Bay. If you go South from the bridge along the West edge of the mall lot, you reach Pacific near the "Kite Girl" statue. Cross Pacific, go South through the business parking lots, across a short unpaved stretch & you find the beginning of the Southern stretch of the Chehalis Western trail.

Eventually, they plan bridges over Martin Way & Pacific and will pave the unpaved stretch by Pacific. I expect at some point they will also pave the unpaved stretch by the railroad tracks and Rainier Rd so it will be possible to ride from Woodard Bay South to Yelm or Tenino on a paved trail but 20 million dollars doesn't buy so much nowadays! Don

20 million dollars doesn't buy so much nowadays!

Ain't that the truth.

I took the CW trail a couple wks ago, biking south from Woodard Bay. Weird to get dumped in the middle of the block there between Lilly and S-K. I went up to Lilly, did a U-turn on Martin so I could get to the bridge, rather than simply left onto the Lilly sidewalk to get to the I-5 trail across the Freeway. Was fun to finally take the bridge, anyway.