WESTWARD NO! TRAIL EXTENSION FOUGHT - BALLARD FIRMS FEAR LOSS OF RAIL SERVICE IF
BURKE-GILMAN ENTERS INDUSTRIAL AREA
Seattle Times, The (WA) (Published as THE SEATTLE TIMES) - November 20, 1989

Author/Byline: DICK LILLY
Edition: ZONE
Section: METRO
Page: B3
Not too far in the future, bicyclists, joggers and folks just out for a stroll will find a quiet path west of Fremont along the tree-lined north
edge of the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
That's what is planned for the popular Burke-Gilman Trail, which within the next year and a half will be extended from Gas Works Park
westward past Fremont.
But the idyllic ride may end suddenly amid the bustle of trucks and forklifts in the North Seattle industrial area west of Third Avenue
Northwest.
Just where the trail will go from there is undecided. Business owners oppose extension of the trail beyond Third Avenue Northwest,
claiming cyclists - especially children on bikes - would be in danger among the heavy equipment traffic that frequently would need to cross
the trail.
There's also concern among business people that under pressure from the city, the Burlington Northern Railroad will abandon its tracks,
leaving customers without rail service. The railroad has pulled up its tracks and turned over right of way to the city as far as approximately
Fifth Avenue Northwest and Northwest 41st Street.
Last stop on the line now is the Charles R. Watts Co., which gets six to eight tank car shipments per year of a latex additive for concrete,
one of the company's main products. Loss of the rail line could reduce his business 25 percent, said owner Mike Farrow.
``Some people here would definitely lose their jobs,'' said Farrow, who employs 21 people. The product would cost 20 percent more if
shipped in by truck, he said.
The whole area would suffer if the rail line closed, Farrow said. To the west of his concrete-construction supply business, Salmon Bay
Steel, is a major rail user. Burlington Northern also serves Olympic Stain and Bardahl. Tyrell's Inc., a pet food manufacturer in Fremont,
wants to unload cars near the Watts company, according to Howard Kallio, railroad spokesman.
The railroad is ``essential to the foundation that Ballard is built on - which is an industrial sector,'' Farrow said.
Kallio said Burlington Northern has no plans to close the line.
``We need every bit of track we have now,'' Kallio said. But he added: ``It's anybody's guess what happens six months or six years from
now.''
Right now, the city takes the long view. There may be no trail link to Ballard and the locks in the foreseeable future, said Peter Lagerwey,
the city's bike-route planner. But there is a move to get something built as far as Eighth Avenue Northwest along the railroad right of way right past Farrow's company.
Under this plan, Metro would build a proposed sewer line from Eighth Avenue Northwest and Leary Way Northwest to the ship canal at
Third Avenue Northwest, mostly along the Burlington Northern tracks.
What the city wants from Metro as the area is restored after construction is a paved path along the right of way.
``That way we would get another small segment of the trail built,'' Kallio said. It could be done without cutting off Farrow's service, he said.
But Farrow's not sure he trusts BN and the city. ``They're taking what they can get and then they work on the next little piece,'' he said.
Most of the Burke-Gilman trail, which stretches from Gas Works Park to Lake Sammamish, has been built on former railroad right of way.
The Third Avenue Northwest to Eighth Avenue Northwest trail section is part of a $2 million development of parts of the trail west of Gas
Works Park that will be paid for with money from the countywide open space bond issue passed earlier this month.
Rather than build the trail, Farrow and other industrialists would like to see the city route bicyclists around the area using Third Avenue

 Northwest or Leary Way Northwest to reach Market Street, before continuing west.
Caption: MAPTIMES STAFF: BURKE-GILMAN TRAIL EXTENSION (MAP NOT IN ELECTRONIC VERSION)
Index terms: BICYCLES AND BICYCLING; SEATTLE; PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS
Record: 898684
Copyright: Copyright 1989 The Seattle Times