City of Redmond, Microsoft open new bridge over State Route 520 for pedestrians and bicyclists

With just a few days to go until Sound Tran­sit’s East Link exten­sion inau­gu­rates rev­enue ser­vice between eight sta­tions in Belle­vue and Red­mond, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute’s home­town today cel­e­brat­ed the open­ing of a new bridge across State Route 520 that pro­vides a safe means for peo­ple to cross the busy high­way that bisects Microsoft­’s Over­lake cam­pus on foot or by bike.

Fund­ed by Microsoft, the bridge is more than just a new right of way… it’s a neigh­bor­hood land­mark that’s aes­thet­i­cal­ly pleas­ing, as you can see from the aer­i­al pho­to that we’ve cho­sen to accom­pa­ny this post. Its avail­abil­i­ty to the pub­lic was marked with a rib­bon cut­ting orga­nized by the com­pa­ny and the city, at which sev­er­al local lead­ers and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Microsoft spoke. The bridge con­nects to the following: 

• The East Link / Line 2 Red­mond Tech­nol­o­gy Sta­tion (RTS)
• The State Route 520 bus fly­er stops, which are served by mul­ti­ple routes
• The State Route 520 region­al bike trail, which now cross­es Lake Wash­ing­ton fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of the new Albert Roselli­ni Ever­green Point Float­ing Bridge 
• Both sides of the Microsoft cam­pus — east and west
• Pub­lic right of way owned by Red­mond on 156th Avenue NE

A ramp pro­vides direct access to the bridge for rid­ers leav­ing the RTS platform. 

“This bridge will be a great ben­e­fit to the com­mu­ni­ty and con­nect us in a num­ber of sus­tain­able ways, with lanes for those who want to walk and ride their bikes,” said Red­mond May­or Angela Bir­ney in a statement. 

“It is thanks to our part­ner­ships with Microsoft, Sound Tran­sit, and WSDOT, that we have this new, not only func­tion­al, but beau­ti­ful con­nec­tion to enjoy.”

“The design of the bridge is the result of metic­u­lous and inno­v­a­tive plan­ning, as well as the unique efforts between Sound Tran­sit, City of Red­mond, and Microsoft,” a news release from the city of Red­mond states. “The bridge was designed by AECOM and engi­neered by Kiewit Engi­neer­ing Group, Inc., and fea­tures func­tion­al canopies, land­scaped planters with native plants, and bench­es to enhance the user experience.” 

“The Red­mond Tech­nol­o­gy Sta­tion will be a hub for tran­sit pas­sen­gers and Microsoft work­ers through­out the East­side,” said King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive and Sound Tran­sit Board Chair Dow Con­stan­tine. “Thanks to the col­lab­o­ra­tion of our project part­ners, we’re expand­ing tran­sit for a more con­nect­ed Puget Sound region.”

“With light rail ser­vice only days away, open­ing this bike and pedes­tri­an bridge will safe­ly con­nect tran­sit pas­sen­gers from the Red­mond Tech­nol­o­gy Sta­tion to Microsoft, the SR 520 Trail, and more, pro­vid­ing yet anoth­er link to our grow­ing light rail sys­tem,” said King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci. “This con­nec­tion is the result of years-long col­lab­o­ra­tion between Sound Tran­sit, WSDOT, Microsoft, and the City of Red­mond and is an inte­gral piece of build­ing an inter­con­nect­ed tran­sit sys­tem that makes mul­ti­modal trav­el easy, safe, and seamless.” 

“Today’s grand open­ing is an impor­tant mile­stone in the effort to cre­ate a mul­ti­modal trans­porta­tion sys­tem that sup­ports the region’s econ­o­my and qual­i­ty of life,” said Alice Jol­la, chief account­ing offi­cer and cor­po­rate vice pres­i­dent at Microsoft. “This bridge is a sym­bol of Microsoft’s com­mit­ment to our local com­mu­ni­ty, and we’re grate­ful for the col­lab­o­ra­tion with the City of Red­mond, Sound Tran­sit, and Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Transportation.”

The new bridge is locat­ed between two oth­er bridges that have been built over State Route 520 since Microsoft estab­lished its head­quar­ters in Red­mond: the one that car­ries NE 40th over the high­way and the one that car­ries NE 36th over the high­way. Long­time res­i­dents of Red­mond can prob­a­bly recall the days when NE 51st was the only exit in between 148th Avenue NE and West Lake Sam­mamish Parkway. 

Now there’s an exit at NE 40th Street too. NE 36th does­n’t have ramps con­nect­ing it to SR 520, but it does pro­vide a means of get­ting from one side of Microsoft­’s cam­pus to the oth­er with­out hav­ing to fight traf­fic on NE 40th or NE 51st. 

The NE 36th Street bridge was built at a time when Red­mond was already plan­ning for light rail to reach the Microsoft cam­pus, and accord­ing­ly, the bridge was designed to ensure there was suf­fi­cient room under­neath for a set of light rail tracks. 

For the roads fur­ther to the east, Sound Tran­sit’s con­trac­tors had to dig trench­es and do some recon­struc­tion to cre­ate a ful­ly grade-sep­a­rat­ed guideway. 

Plan­ning for the bridge began in the 2010s. Con­struc­tion start­ed in 2019 and wrapped up in 2023, with some work con­tin­u­ing on the west approach and the trail connection. 

The bridge has a small­er sib­ling to the west that pro­vides pedes­tri­ans and bicy­clists with a means of get­ting across State Route 520 with­out hav­ing to use 148th Avenue. A two hun­dred and six­ty-foot-long steel-truss bridge opened back in Jan­u­ary that serves the Over­lake Vil­lage Sta­tion. It was designed not only to aid sta­tion access, but to improve free­dom of mobil­i­ty in the Over­lake neighborhood. 

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the City of Red­mond and Microsoft on this mobil­i­ty mile­stone! This is a great pre­lude to Sound Tran­sit’s Line 2 open­ing fes­tiv­i­ties this week­end. NPI will bring you cov­er­age through­out the week­end of these new sta­tion open­ings right here on The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate. We’ll also have a pre­view of what to expect lat­er this week.