SEATTLE — A a city hearing examiner has told the Seattle Department of Transportation to head back to the drawing board to study other options for the missing link of the Burke-Gilman Trail.
Bicyclists have crashed while riding over the bumpy road and old train tracks in Ballard, and the city wants to finish the trail.
The proposed new route is along Shilshole Avenue Northwest, but since 2008, a coalition of businesses have been fighting the city, saying it’s unsafe to have a bike trail where there are industrial and maritime businesses with many trucks coming in and out of driveways.
The city plan called for a 3-foot-tall barricade there as separation, but the businesses said that wouldn't lower the risk and they want the trail put on another street.
According to the Seattle P-I, the city will now have to study other options, further delaying the completion of the Burke-Gilman "missing link."