Construction is under way on one of the final segments of road to complete a bicycle route from Lake Washington to Puget Sound in Renton.

The South 7th Street bike corridor, between Burnett Avenue and South Shattuck Street, began construction in March 2025 and will continue through June 2025. Renton Public Works project manager Keith Woolley said while the project was originally supposed to be only a multi-use trail along the north side of S. 7th Street, it now will be a sidewalk and a cycle traffic combination.

“The city, for a long time, has had the vision to have a bicycle corridor between downtown and the western city limits,” Woolley said. “Of course the city along with multiple other agencies and organizations have long wanted to have a regional trail connection through Renton from the western city limits to the Cedar River and north to Gene Coulon Park.”

Woolley said for years, roads were constructed solely with cars in mind. He said projects like this are intended to make it safe for cyclists and pedestrians.

“We also really don’t want traffic going across this trail uncontrolled. You don’t really want to be out there with your four-year-old child on a bike and cars flying across the trail,” Woolley said.

He also said this project is working to provide more delineation from the traffic on 7th Street and the neighborhood.

“Basically, we’re trying to make it feel like this trail corridor provides a buffer between the houses to the north and the cars to the south,” Woolley said.

Woolley said Sound Transit also identified S. 7th Street as a needed connection to help people bike or walk to their future transit center on the street. The transit agency helped fund the project, along with a federal highway grant and state transportation improvement money.

Woolley said the project will still allow two lanes of traffic in each direction. He said the new bike lane will come from space that previously allowed for parking on the street.

Along with creating a new bike route, Woolley said a part of the project is “raising awareness” of S. 7th Street being used as a bicycle corridor from Shattuck Avenue west to Oakesdale Avenue with signs that say bikes can use the full lane and other bike-friendly improvements.

“We’ve added some bicycle detection cameras at all the traffic signals along that corridor,” Woolley said.

Woolley said he envisions the county partnering with the city to complete design and construction because of the hope of a 2025 parks levy that will be on the ballot in August.

The six-year King County Parks Levy would increase the agency’s capacity to keep parks and trails clean, safe and open; offer new amenities and recreational activities; create a climate response fund; increase capacity for forest stewardship; and accelerate regional trail expansion, according to the King County website. The proposal would cost the owner of a home with an assessed value of $844,000 about 11 cents more per day starting in January 2026. Woolley said the levy would earmark $55 million to the Lake to Sound Trail, a 16-mile non-motorized, multi-use recreational trail spanning from the south end of Lake Washington in Renton, all the way to the shoreline of Puget Sound in Des Moines.

“Should it pass, there is funding to construct that segment of the Lake to Sound Trail,” Woolley said.

Woolley said the next step in the Lake to Sound Trail will be to connect the end of his project to the end of the Cedar River Trail. The Renton Connector project, separate walkways and bike lanes along the west side of Burnett Avenue from S. 2nd Street to S. 5th Street, would be the final segment of the Lake to Sound Trail needed for a bike path to travel through Renton.

“Everybody’s dream is to be able to ride all the way around Lake Washington on a trail. It’s getting there,” Woolley said.

Woolley said if the levy passes he expects funds to also go to the other missing segment of the Lake to Sound Trail, between the Fort Dent complex in Tukwila to the northern tip of the Seatac airport.

“They’re all interrelated,” Woolley said. “It’s all so you don’t have to feel like you have to get into a car. That’s the intent. Transportation is many, many modes.”