Community Advisory Group presents final recommendations for Energize Eastside routes

Published 2:58 pm Wednesday, December 17, 2014

At its final meeting on Dec. 10, Puget Sound Energy’s (PSE) Community Advisory Group (CAG) offered its final route recommendations to the utility for its Energize Eastside project.

The panel — made up of neighborhood, business and civic leaders — spent about a year examining the 16 different segments of the route. These segments formed 18 possible routes stretching 18 miles between Redmond and Renton.

After narrowing down its choices, the CAG recommended two routes: Oak and Willow.

According to a PSE press release, of the 20 advisory group members and residential alternates present at the meeting, 17 supported the final recommendations. Of those 17, eight expressed preference for the Oak route and five expressed preference for the Willow route, while four supported either route. Three advisory group members had a dissenting opinion and supported none of the routes.

Both routes begin at the Sammamish substation off of Willows Road Northeast and contain the same first three segments (A, C and E). These segments run south, just west of 140th Avenue Northeast, ending at Southeast 30th Street in Bellevue.

From here, the Oak route contains the segments G2, I and K2. This portion of the route runs west along Southeast 30th Street until it hits Richards Road and continues south along that road, which turns into Factoria Boulevard Southeast. The route then runs down Coal Creek Parkway Southeast and veers just west of the road, continuing south with segments M and N. These final two segments continue southwest through Renton, just west of Monroe Avenue Northeast and end at the Talbot Hill substation just off of Beacon Way South.

At the point where the two routes separate at Southeast 30th Street in Bellevue, the Willow route continues south with the J segment, just west of 139th Avenue Southeast before veering slightly southwest to Coal Creek Parkway Southeast, where it continues along segments M and N, just as the Oak route does.

To see the routes in their entirety, visit www.energizeeastside.com and click on the “Interactive Map” under the “Maps” section.

PSE representative Lindsey Walimaki said now that the CAG has provided its recommendations, PSE will be taking the next few  months to review all the information they have received, which also includes roughly 2,300 comments from the public. She said the utility will then do its due diligence to determine a final route.

This decision is expected in early 2015, according to the PSE press release.

The release also states that PSE will work directly with property owners and tenants in the coming months to begin detailed fieldwork to inform the route alignment, project design, the environmental review process and permit applications. PSE will also ask for community input on project design — which may include pole location, height, finish and other design considerations — and work with the City of Bellevue and other affected jurisdictions and agencies on the project’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process.

Walimaki said PSE will be accepting public feedback throughout all of these processes.

“We’ll always take input,” she said.