Bell Street bike lane near market opens soon – UPDATED

Photo from SDOT.

Getting to the waterfront from Belltown will be much simpler as soon as Friday (June 20) when the Bell Street two-way bikeway opens between Elliott Ave and 1st Ave, where it connects with the park street section.

UPDATE: The street was still closed as of Monday with some significant work left to complete. Stay tuned for more accurate opening info.

UPDATE 2: A reader sent us a note Tuesday that the street is open (thanks, Manuel!). I saw them working on it Monday, and it seemed like they had a long way to go. So crews must have worked a long day.

Even though the block between Western and 1st is quite steep, this will still be the best bike route option for many people headed to and from Lake Union. Riders will be able to go along the waterfront and up to Lake Union Park without mixing with car traffic except for the low-traffic park section of Bell Street.

There will be some intermittent work in the coming weeks to finish installing cobblestones and other landscaping features.

Map from SDOT.

The Alaskan Way bikeway is also mostly complete with only a couple sections still closed off between Myrtle Edwards Park and the fully-open waterfront bikeway near the market overlook. Very soon, you'll be able to bike a car-free Queen Anne Hill loop via the Ship Canal Trail, Elliott Bay Trail, Alaskan Way, Elliott Way, Bell Street, 9th Ave and Westlake. This route and all the transportation connections it will enable is the result of decades of advocacy and public investments from both the city and the Port of Seattle all finally coming together.

More details on the Bell Street project from SDOT:

As early as the evening of Friday, June 20, (weather permitting) Bell St between Elliott and 1st avenues will reopen with a new two-way protected bike lane and reconfigured vehicle access. Between Elliott and Western avenues vehicle access will be one-way eastbound, and between Western and 1st avenues vehicle access will be one-way westbound.

People driving and biking can expect a pause in activity for a few weeks followed by intermittent daytime closures as work continues to install cobblestones, additional seating boulders, the restored historic Alaskan Way Viaduct sign bridge, landscaping and the completion of finishing touches.

Thus far we have widened sidewalks, installed boulders for seating, built foundations for the sign bridge, paved the new roadway, added signals for the new protected bike lane which will connect to the 1.2-mile bike lane along the waterfront via the Elliott Ave and Elliott Way bike lanes as well as the existing Bell St bike facility between 2nd and 5th avenues.