Community Awareness – Upcoming Closure of Factoria Boulevard Begins in February

The City of Bellevue is planning a stormwater conveyance improvement project along Factoria Boulevard to improve the stormwater infrastructure and reduce the risk of flooding along the Factoria-Richards Creek drainage basin. BSD educators, students and families will be heavily impacted by road closures resulting from the proposed project. The City of Bellevue indicates that impacts include:

• Variable work hours, up to 20 hours/day, 6 days/week.
• Heavy truck traffic and noise from construction machinery.
• Heavy traffic delays.

The first phase of the project began the second week of January 2024, for initial construction activities. The project’s primary phase is set to take place from February 25, 2024, and continue through July 8, 2024. During these four months northbound lanes will close completely, and one southbound lane will close (to be utilized as a northbound lane).

The project is located along Factoria Boulevard between Southeast 38th and 36th streets, south of Interstate-90. Project work will also include a portion of Richards Creek, along the east side of Factoria Boulevard and south of Southeast 36th Street.

BSD Transportation Impacts

BSD transportation would like to make students, staff and families aware of the significant impacts to district transportation the closure may cause. Currently, district transportation is experiencing increased travel times by 20-25 minutes (each morning and afternoon) on south Bellevue routes resulting from the impact of the City’s closure of Lakemont Boulevard and the overflow of traffic on to Coal Creek Parkway.

Factoria Boulevard closures will have district transportation impacts that may increase the time that students ride the bus by an additional 25-30 minutes. This has the potential to impact total student travel times by 50 minutes each day, to and from school. The following list of routes currently use the Factoria corridor, both to pick up and drop off students and to travel to subsequent school routes. The closure is expected to highly impact the arrival time at the following schools:

• Newport Heights Elementary School
• Newport High School
• Odle Middle School
• Somerset Elementary School
• Tyee Middle School
• Woodridge Elementary School

The district will continue to monitor and evaluate impacts resulting from the closure. All mitigation strategies, including adjustments to pick-up and drop-off times for impacted schools, will be considered to support students, staff and families over the next few months.

Bus Routes Highly Impacted by Factoria Boulevard Closure

Pedestrian and Bicycle Access and Metro Bus Routes Impacted

The sidewalk on the east side of Factoria Boulevard will be closed, requiring students who walk or bike to school to only utilize one sidewalk on the west side of the roadway.

Two King County Metro bus stops in the project area will be temporarily relocated. Students who use these stops to travel to or from school, attend WANIC or Running Start programs, or afterschool jobs or internships will have impacts to their day and further distances to travel due to rerouted services.

City of Bellevue Outreach

The City will be holding an information session regarding the project at Factoria Village near Starbucks by QFC to answer your questions and provide project information on Monday, February 26, 2024, from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Please reach out directly to the City for questions, comments or concerns at 425-452-4160 or email [email protected].