It was an exciting Tuesday morning (June 25) for residents and travelers in the Northeast Novelty Hill Road area. After more than a decade in planning, permitting, process, design and construction, the roadway between Northeast Novelty Hill Road and Northeast 95th Street (near the Bear Creek Valley Campus and Perrigo Park) opened ahead of schedule after a brief celebration and ribbon-cutting ceremony.

I served on the community advisory group for the project since late 2002, and it seemed like a unique opportunity to have a wide variety of citizens involved in the planning process. I feel privileged to have played a small role in the project. Barbara deMichele, and later DeAnna Martin, served as the community liaisons during the many phases.

Not only did the overall design for the project invite feedback and input from neighborhood citizens and interested parties, it incorporates best practices for road design and maximizing safety improvements, solving and actually improving multiple and complex environmental challenges, all the while working with the community at large to communicate the progress and minimize traffic impacts and disruptions during construction.

One of the engineers mentioned that people often look at a completed road and think, “It doesn’t look like much.” That may be the case here… and this is a testimony of great design where it flows with the surrounding area, feels like it “belongs” and as King County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert describes, you look ahead and see a place where you want to go.

Although this process has spanned many, many years, the benefits and impact will be enjoyed for decades to come.

It truly is a thing of beauty!!!

Millie Snook, Redmond