Northeast 120th Street is performing “remarkably well,” said Chuck Morrison, a Kirkland transportation engineer who has been closely monitoring Totem Lake traffic since the city brought the 900-foot extension onto its street network Wednesday afternoon.
“Once people know there’s a new route there, they may change their habits,” Morrison said. “People didn’t go that way before and people are creative. So you never quite know what to expect. We’ll keep monitoring it for a few weeks.”
Kirkland’s City Council opened the 900-foot road to the public on Nov. 19, after a ceremony that featured Lake Washington High School’s drum line, cyclists, pedestrians and drivers, as well as state and federal officials.
“Not only will these 900 feet improve the connectivity and traffic flow of the Totem Lake economic engine, they will also help catalyze local redevelopment,” Kirkland Mayor Amy Walen told the gathering of residents and stakeholders. “And it will do this while remaining sensitive to our immediate environment through extensive water quality efforts up-steam of Totem Lake, Lake Washington and Puget Sound.”
Northeast 120th Street is the first road the city of Kirkland has built in two decades and the first prospective Greenroad on the Eastside. To achieve Greenroad status—it’s kind of like a LEED certification for roads—the city committed to a variety of environmentally sensitive strategies.
For one, it used a warm-mix asphalt, rather than a hot-mix asphalt, which reduces the necessary temperature of the asphalt by 50- to 100-degrees. That, in turn, reduces the amount of energy to heat the asphalt. It also reduces emissions. Kirkland is also making use of LED lighting, stormwater-soaking and filtering devices and recycled pavement.
One fundamental requirement of a Greenroads certification is the road’s durability, said Jeralee Anderson, Greenroads Foundation executive director.
“To earn Greenroads certification, we ask for a minimum of a 40-year lifetime [with regular maintenance],” Anderson said. “The idea is to design for longer durability. There is a substantial amount of research that says if you add a few inches of pavement [thickness], even though it will cost more in the short term, it’ll cost much less in the long run.”
Dennis Warner, far right, Infiniti of Kirkland’s service manager, hands off a donation to John Logan, the instructor for Lake Washington High School’s drum line. The donation made possible the drum line’s participation in the 120th Street road-opening event.
Kirkland Greenways co-director Glen Buhlmann, left, hangs out with McKayla Dunfey, Cascade Bicycle Club’s policy and government affairs coordinator during the Nov. 19 road-opening ceremony for Northeast 120th Street.
Deputy Mayor Penny Sweet, on the scooter, readies for the procession toward the ribbon on Northeast 120th Street, while Council Members Dave Asher, left, and Toby Nixon, fourth from left, and Mayor Amy Walen, third from left, chat with a young cyclist, far left.
Photos by Christian Knight/City of Kirkland
