What we heard during our outreach 

As part of our outreach process, we work with a wide range of community members who help make Seattle a vibrant place to live, work, and visit – from nearby neighbors and travelers to small business owners and neighborhood organizations - and we want to share what we’ve heard throughout the project.  

To learn more about the outreach activities we completed during the design phase, check out our Outreach Activities Report. If you want to review the feedback that was shared with us, please review our feedback summaries: 

• Spring 2021 Feedback Summary 
• Spring 2022 Feedback Summary 
• Summer 2023 Feedback Summary 
• Business and Neighborhood Organization Feedback Summary 

You can find some top themes from our Summer 2023 outreach listed below. 

General themes of community priorities: 

• Overall support for the design of the Route 40 corridor as it was developed. 
• Overall support for increased traffic calming measures throughout the Route 40 corridor. 
• Overall support for additional safety and mobility improvements for people walking, biking, and rolling.   

Key community concerns about the design included: 

1. Concerns from Fremont business owners about personal and property safety near bus stops. 
2. Concerns from business owners about parking removal and changes to loading zones in the Westlake, Fremont, and Ballard neighborhoods. 
3. Concerns from business owners about freight movement in Westlake neighborhood. 
4. Concerns from neighbors about increased traffic congestion in Fremont, Ballard, and Westlake.  
5. Questions from neighborhood organizations about what environmental review was completed for the project, specifically regarding vehicle emissions and water pollution. 

In response, we updated the final design or responded by: 

1. Met with Fremont business, property owners, and King County Metro to discuss bus stop design and will continue to reach out on amenities.
2. Maintained the total number of loading zones in each neighborhood and added new zones in Westlake and Fremont to support commercial loading for businesses and customers. 
3. Confirmed plans to launch a Freight and Bus Only Lane pilot project on Westlake Ave N. This pilot will allow freight trucks over 26,000 pounds (about the size of a garbage truck, large box truck, or semi-truck) to use select bus lanes, be in effect 24/7, and be evaluated by the Urban Freight Lab. 
4. Completed a traffic analysis during the early planning and design phase. Full details and results are available in a summary report. And committed to business and property owners to observe traffic patterns after project completion and keep them engaged on findings and their experience. 
5. Provided information on the environmental analysis in the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) process. The project received a Determination of Non-Significance in Spring 2023. This determination confirmed that the project will not have a probable significant adverse impact on the environment. You can learn more by reading the SEPA documents.

We are committed to being responsive to the feedback that these groups and members of the public have shared with us throughout the years.  

View our final designs 

Please visit our project design hub to view the latest designs. Changes between summer 2023 and now include: 

• Refining length of the Freight-and-Bus (FAB) Lane pilot project lanes based on feedback from neighbors in Westlake 
• Modifying the bus-only turn lane on Westlake Ave based on new data gathered by the design team 

• Advancing the design of the new bus stop on Fremont Pl N 
• Adding a new loading zone on Fremont Pl N to address concerns from business owners about loading zone and parking changes 
• Updating lane markings and turn lanes at intersections to help maintain connections to nearby streets 
• These design updates are in addition to the dozens of improvements we have made along the project corridor throughout the entire design process based on your feedback! Your input will help us achieve our goals of improving reliability for the Route 40 and enhancing safety and access to the project corridor. 

New watermain upgrades on Fremont Ave N

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is currently planning to replace a 100-year-old waterline under Fremont Ave between 34th & 35th St. When we conduct extensive reconstruction of street pavement panels, we often coordinate with SPU to determine if replacing old utilities infrastructure is needed, to avoid digging up a newly constructed concrete street in the future. This reduces impacts to the community by completing major construction activities at the same time. It also helps reduce travel impacts, minimize construction costs, and shorten construction timelines compared to if the projects were completed separately. 

Next steps

Later this year, we will begin pre-construction outreach, including reaching out to the community and sharing more information about project plans, construction activities, when to expect construction impacts, and how we will coordinate with neighbors along the corridor. We plan to select a construction contractor and begin construction in 2024.