The City of Bellevue, Washington’s 124th Avenue NE Corridor Improvements project was recognized with a 2026 Honor Award from the ASCE Seattle Section during its recent Local Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievements (LOCEA) Awards Night. GeoEngineers has been working alongside the city through every major phase of this project, beginning in 2013, providing geotechnical and environmental services.
This transportation project was part of a major transformation of the BelRed neighborhood from a light industrial area into a vibrant, mixed-use, transit-oriented corridor. The overall federally funded effort included six coordinated construction projects along this major freight route, delivering roadway widening, a bridge over Sound Transit’s light rail line, stormwater improvements, retaining walls, a fish-passable culvert, franchise utility upgrades, and an urban wetland overlook. GeoEngineers was also involved in related improvements along other roadway corridors that were part of this transformation.
“It has been remarkable to get to work with Jacob Letts (environmental project manager) and the rest of the GeoEngineers team to see this project along for over a decade, over multiple phases of work, as the area changed from a sketchy industrial zone to a beautiful, walkable, transit- and pedestrian-focused area,” said Tim Bailey (geotechnical project manager).
The project required extensive coordination among the City of Bellevue, Sound Transit, WSDOT, adjacent businesses, developers, and the project team. Three corridor segments were widened from two lanes to five while maintaining traffic flow and incorporating a wide range of multimodal improvements, including multi-use pathways, protected bike facilities, ADA-compliant sidewalks, planted buffers, dedicated bicycle signals, and enhanced pedestrian crossings. Together, these improvements improve safety and strengthen connections to the Spring District light rail station and the regional trail network.
“Over the years we had to navigate a lot of challenges,” Tim said, “from artesian groundwater and unexpected boulders, to soil contamination and a pandemic.”
Each segment of the project had its own unique challenges, many driven by the complex sequencing. One phase of work constructed a bridge to accommodate the Sound Transit light rail before the rail construction had even started. Another phase of work partially constructed a retaining wall and utilities over compressible soils; the wall height was then raised and the utilities re-leveled in the next phase of the project.
The project also established a new standard for cohesive urban design. Bellevue adopted corridor-specific design standards into city code and worked with FHWA and WSDOT to approve proprietary aesthetic specifications, creating a consistent visual identity across all six construction segments and neighboring corridors.
Completed on schedule and within budget, the project provides a model for how transportation investments can support redevelopment, reduce congestion, improve mobility for all users, and help transform underutilized industrial areas into thriving urban neighborhoods.
Congratulations to Debra Overbay, Tim Bailey, Jacob Letts, Tony Orme, and the whole project team!
