On May 12th, the City of Seattle celebrated the grand opening of the Chief Sealth Trail. Staff at Herrera Environmental Consultants can look on with pride, having played a key role in bringing Seattle’s first off-street multi-use trail to completion.

Part of Puget Sound Regional Council’s Vision 2020 Plan and winner of the Joint Sustainability Award from the American Planning Association, the new Chief Sealth Trail connects to an existing system of streets and sidewalks to form a multi-use pedestrian and cyclist trail stretching 3.6 miles from S Gazelle to S Dawson Street. Herrera was contracted by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) in 2004 to assist with environmental compliance, technical review, and scoping. Specifically, Herrera helped complete an addendum to the existing Environmental Impact Statement; that allowed SDOT to use soil excavated from Sound Transit’s Central Link Project in the Beacon Hill neighborhood for construction of the Chief Sealth Trail. Herrera coordinated their efforts with Sound Transit and managed to complete the process in just two months. As a result, SDOT was able to use most of the soil from the Beacon Hill site at no additional cost to the city.

The Chief Sealth Trail’s winding path was designed to avoid affecting local wetlands and their buffers. Herrera assisted SDOT with delineating wetlands along the entire length of the trail to ensure their protection. The soil procured through Herrera’s permitting work with Sound Transit was used to reduce slopes along the trail while avoiding these sensitive areas.