Alex Russell

A month after the completion of a new stretch of the Burke-Gilman Trail, a local business owner still has safety concerns about the trail running along industrial Ballard.

"I don't want to see anybody get hurt but the problem is the bicyclist...is the one that's going to get injured, and commerce, industry is going to get shut down," said Warren Aakervik, owner of Ballard Oil.

A central part of Aakervik's business is trucking fuel to his waterfront business. He said that low visibility and the size of his truck creates a danger to bicyclists that may not see him in time, or ride too close. According to a document sent to him from his insurance company, it would only take one incident between one of his trucks and a bicyclist and he would lose his insurance.

In the Feb. 6, 2003 letter, Bell-Anderson Agency executive vice president Jim Hunt wrote that Aakervik's business could become effectively uninsurable because of increased premiums after a trail-related accident.

Since the 2003 letter, Hunt said, the insurance market for businesses like Ballard Oil has not changed.

"There are as few if not fewer markets to insure what he does, and a number of businesses in that industrial area, that it's a precarious situation at best," said Hunt.

Aakervik said that if he lost his insurance, he would have to close his business for good.

"If this was my own little playfield, and it didn't have anything to do with the economy of the city, or the regional economy of the state, or the national economy... it's no big deal," said Aakervik. "But it isn't."

According to a 2004 Seattle Office of Economic Development study, maritime businesses generates $4.1 billion in revenues annually for King County, and employs more than 45,000 people. Aakervik estimates that Ballard Oil and Covich-Williams serve 85 percent of the Seattle maritime industry. If he were to lose his insurance and subsequently his business he said the local economy would suffer, he said.

Beth Miller, director of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce, expressed concern about what might happen to industrial businesses like Aakervik's should the trail through industrial Ballard become a reality.

"The risk for putting those folks out of business, versus the small amount of revenue that Ballard might incur from people using that from the trail, I don't know that we can say that that was a fair tradeoff."

The Port of Seattle Commission expressed concern about a bike trail running through industrial Ballard during open discussion of the project in 2003, before a final route was selected.

A March 3, 2003 letter to city council member Richard Conlin, signed by Seattle Port Commission chair Patricia Davis, states: "Limiting transportation access by construction and trail through the waterfront industrial area will hurt the businesses' ability to grow and could limit outside investment in the community...and the trail as proposed could well have a negative effect throughout the area."

"The traffic there is heavy," said Mick Shultz, media officer for the Port of Seattle. "There's a lot of traffic and much of it is large vehicles. There isn't much of a shoulder. So those were the kinds of concerns that folks here had."

"We absolutely agree with the industrial community that it has to be a safe trail, and we believe it can be," said Davidya Kasperzyk, a Seattle-based architect.

Kasperzyk was the design principal in a study on completing the missing link of the Burke-Gilman Trail, the stretch of trail that will connect where the trail currently ends in Fremont to Golden Gardens. During the study, Kasperzyk went as far as to see what cities in Europe have done where some bike trails have railroad-style crossings for safe passage of vehicles.

Kasperzyk said there are good examples of the trail in an industrial area right here in the city. One example, he said, is in Fremont east of Fred Meyer.

According to Patrice Gillespi Smith, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation, construction on the missing link of the Trail does not yet have a timeline. The Department of Transportation is currently applying for grants.

However, with citywide programs to make sure there are enough traffic signs, as well as clear sight distances for bicyclists, Smith said the trail along Shilshole will be safe when it is built.

Until the final route of the trail is built along N.W. 54th and Shilshole, the interim trail was marked to run along Market Street between 28th and 24th Avenues N.W. The interim path came out of discussions with local businesses to address their safety concerns.

"What they're trying to do is protect [Covich-Williams] and us, and Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel," said Aakervik.

Overall, said Smith, the trail project has been popular with local businesses.

"It really was the result of a lot of discussions," she said. "We received 60 or 70 letters from businesses throughout the area saying this is a great thing, we want it."

Miller said that she has not seen enough support for the Ballard Chamber of Commerce to support the trail.

"As a chamber, we have not particularly taken a stand one way or the other because we have, obviously, members that are on both sides of the fence."

Miller added, "We are very concerned about our industrial businesses and any impact that that would have on them, and unless [there is] some way of building the trial that does not inversely affect them, then I think that the chamber, we would not be willing to support a trail through that area."

Aakervik said he has no problem with a bike trail, only with the path the city has chosen for the Burke-Gilman Trail.

"I would love to see more people with bicycles," said Aakervik.

He said that building an artery for bicyclists is a good idea, and would relieve traffic congestion.

Aakervik has suggested a grided bicycle arterial system running along 8th, 17th, 28th Avenues Northwest, as well as Northwest 77th and 58th Streets. The city has not made any plans to take it into consideration because of safety concerns.

Kasperzyk said that the final trail route running along the industrial area is the safest because of the wide right away. It would also be safest because any routes north of Shilshole would be on city streets with heavier traffic, he said.

Extending the trail along Shilshole should be easy, Kasperzyk said, because of the 45 feet or right away which does not exist on normal city streets running east and west.

"They just selected the route, that route being in their opinion, according to volume, public property ownership, and safety-the green route is the safest route," he said.

Kasperzyk said that construction of a separate industrial lane along with a bike trail would improve transportation for industry as well as safety

Where the trail will eventually end up through the industrial area in Ballard, there is room for a separate industrial lane, said Kasperzyk, with its own access road.

"There are industrial routes that should be improved along with a separated bike trail that should be improved. These are all what normal and high quality cities do to make everybody safe."