Why the Port didn’t fix the ‘Path Narrows’ south of the removed Interbay trail bridge

When the Port of Seattle initially announced the Terminal 91 Trail bridge removal project back in 2023, they were also planning to widen the Path Narrows" pinch point where the fences squeeze the trail just south of the old bridge. So when folks like Bob Svercl went to give the new trail a ride, they were surprised to find that while the bridge has been replaced with a smooth and wide trail, the 5-foot-wide pinch point is still there.

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Bob measured and found that from fence-to-fence, the width is about five feet, but the usable width is even skinnier. So Bob went back to the project website and realized that all mentions of the pinch point had been scrubbed. He then checked the Wayback Machine, and sure enough this spot used to be listed. So Bob asked the Port why the Path Narrows were still there, and Project Manager Mark Longridge said they did not figure out an easement agreement with BNSF in time and didn't want to delay the bridge project:

The southern pinch point is constrained by the BNSF property line on the east side, and an existing port building and roadway to the west. Unfortunately, we were not able to work out an easement with BNSF to move this alignment east without impacting their yard road and did not want to delay the bridge removal and other parts of the work any longer waiting for a possible design solution for the south pinch point. The good news is that the building to the west is now slated for removal in the next couple of years as part of a bigger project and the plan is to potentially realign the road to address this remaining narrower section. While we would have preferred to do all of this work together, we wanted to get as much of the trail fixed as soon as possible."

The project website initially included widening the South Pinch Point" AKA The Path Narrows."

So the pinch point is still on the to-do list, and the overhead sign gives it a great name: The Path Narrows. Not quite as famous as the Tacoma Narrows. Before the bridge was removed, the Narrows were just one part of a string of pinch points and awkward spots, but now that it is all alone it really stands out.

Also, a note to project teams: Please don't just remove things from official materials without adding comment explaining why. I think most people would accept the Port's explanation about issues fixing this pinch point. A similar issue came up in a much worse way this summer when Seattle Parks quietly removed most of the planned safety upgrades from the Lake Washington Boulevard project and then did not mention the cuts at all when publicizing the new much shorter upgrade list. We had to use the Wayback Machine to find those cuts, too.