After an outcry from the community about the proposal to remove the pedestrian overpass on Holman Road NW at 13th Avenue NW, Seattle Department of Transportation has revamped its design for a new pedestrian crossing.
The original proposal was to remove the overpass and install two signalized crosswalks. But, many community members thought that was unsafe because so many Whitman Middle School students use the overpass. Instead, SDOT will keep the overpass and add one signalized crosswalk.
As you know, community members concerned about the safety of students crossing at this location requested a new traffic signal and crosswalk at this location. Standard design procedures led us to propose removing the pedestrian overpass and installing two crosswalks. However, after hearing how important the pedestrian overpass is to people, we agreed to reexamine our design options.
We’ve come up with a solution that keeps the pedestrian overpass and installs one crosswalk just below it. This design requires more complex signal design and additional soil and foundation work, which is in part why it was not our initial recommendation.
The project schedule remains the same. We expect to complete design by the end of this year and construction in 2018.
