FOLLOWUP: Columbia Street Pathway downtown to be done by December

Update from SDOT on another piece of the puzzle for getting between here and downtown via Metro – the Columbia Street “Pathway” is now expected to be done by December:

We’re working with King County Metro to install a two-way transit pathway on Columbia St between 1st Ave and 3rd Ave by December 2019. This pathway will support all-day transit service between West Seattle and downtown Seattle by creating an efficient and reliable route for buses to access the new Viaduct-free Alaskan Way in early 2020, relocating these routes from 1st Ave and 4th Ave.

These changes are crucial to the next step in opening up the Waterfront for transit use and are the final step of the larger project to reconstruct Columbia St to accommodate two-way transit operation.

More information is available in our Two-Way Columbia Street Transit Improvements flyer.

Preliminary work on Columbia started even before The Viaduct was closed. As noted in this SDOT post, the routes using this pathway will be “West Seattle, Burien, and neighboring area buses including the 21x, 37, 55, 56, 57, 113, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, and the RapidRide C Line.”

9 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: Columbia Street Pathway downtown to be done by December"

  • Matt P September 26, 2019 (2:38 pm)

    I’m a little confused by the flyer.  Columbia street is going to be 2 way but it looks from the flyer that only buses can travel eastbound and it’s still 1 way westbound for everyone else? I can see that being heavily abused.

    • WSB September 26, 2019 (3:04 pm)

      Its official title is *2-way TRANSIT Pathway*

  • Rob B September 26, 2019 (3:47 pm)

    Finally some good news. Last I heard it wasn’t going to be open until February.

  • 120rider September 26, 2019 (6:47 pm)

    oh what’s the hurry?  commute times are great! what’s the problem.  Doesn’t everyone take an hour to go 7 miles?

    • Kayo September 26, 2019 (8:26 pm)

      Took one hour and 10 minutes to get from North Delridge to SLU via the 120 and streetcar this morning.  An hour to get home.  Over 2 hours to go 12 miles round trip.  I am driving tomorrow…

    • pdxmark77 September 27, 2019 (2:37 am)

      For me, the new routing on 4th Ave adds another 10-15 minutes to my commute.  I am always happy when the driver still takes 1st Ave as it really speeds things up.

  • Lee September 26, 2019 (9:46 pm)

    I know the announcement doesn’t address this, but I’m wondering what the routing will be like between Alaskan Way and 1st Avenue. I really hope that the transit pathway extends all the way between 3rd and Alaskan in both directions, but the flyer and the SDOT page both seem to studiously avoid talking about anything other than the stretch between 1st and 3rd.

  • CAM September 27, 2019 (10:08 am)

    The very best thing that Metro and SDOT could do to enable all day transit between West Seattle and Downtown is to eliminate private vehicle traffic from Columbia. There are multiple other paths for private vehicles to move east-west through that area and the number of buses using that two block section of Columbia would more than meet it’s capacity most times of day without any need for additional vehicles. 

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