Seattle Freeway Lid Expected by 2030

The Washington State Department of Transportation has announced the construction schedule for a freeway lid that will cap a segment of the 520 freeway in Seattle's North Capitol Hill, reports Ryan Packer.

"When North Capitol Hill’s freeway lid is complete at the end of this decade, it will completely remake the street grid around E Roanoke Street, providing bike and pedestrian connectivity that just doesn’t exist now and stitching the city back together a little." The plan "is to start construction on the Portage Bay bridge and the Roanoke Lid in 2024, after work wraps up on the Montlake segment of the 520 project and work adding a new HOV lane between 520 and South Lake Union is complete as part the remaining $1.6 billion in SR 520 improvements from Lake Washington to I-5."

The city has been working on several freeway lids aimed at reconnecting neighborhoods and mitigating the negative impacts of freeway traffic and pollution. "10th Ave E and Delmar Drive E will be joined together by an open space lid almost as large as Roanoke Park to the north of it. Pathways on either side of the central green space will allow people walking or rolling to take shortcuts across the lid."