The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is prioritizing long overdue street improvements on West Marginal Way SW near the Duwamish tribe’s Longhouse and Cultural Center–a route facing very high levels of vehicle traffic due to the closure of the West Seattle Freeway. A majority of the improvements will be in place within a year, the department told a meeting of the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force during its last meeting. The improvements include a new signalized crosswalk across Marginal Way near the longhouse, a pedestrian pathway where there is currently no sidewalk, and an extension of the Duwamish Trail upgrading a section where people must bike on the sidewalk.
The Longhouse & Cultural Center, which receives tens of thousands of visitors annually, has long been cut off by heavily used Marginal Way, with no way to cross near the site without being daring enough to try and force fast-moving traffic to stop. The tribe launched the Duwamish Longhouse Pedestrian Safety and Accessibility Project to remedy this. In 2019, SDOT installed paint and posts that funneled traffic into one lane in each direction near the longhouse, citing an inability to afford to install a full signal. The project was not selected for a Neighborhood Street Fund grant that same year that would have paid for a signal.
