Greenwood Avenue North Is Closing Its Last Sidewalk Gaps. Here's What's Being Built and When.

In August 2016, crews repaved Greenwood Avenue North from 112th Street to 136th Street and built no sidewalks at all. The project cost $2,820,000. At the time, The Urbanist reported that not one block between 112th and 130th had a continuous sidewalk. Ten years later, construction crews are back on two stretches that overlap those same limits, between North 112th and 117th and between North 133rd and 137th. The Seattle Department of Transportation calls this work the "final chapter" of a sidewalk effort on Greenwood that dates back to 2009.

The fences and steel plates along the east side this fall are the last seams in a corridor Broadview has been building piece by piece. Walk Greenwood from Diva Espresso at 105th up to the Highlands café at 144th and you are crossing sidewalks finished in 2020, 2022 and 2025. The 2026–2027 work fills in what the 2016 repaving skipped.

The repaving that left the gaps

Greenwood's missing sidewalks go back long before 2016. HistoryLink describes the road north of the old city limit as Country Club Road, a dirt and plank road with no sidewalks. Seattle annexed the Greenwood District north of North 85th Street in 1954. HistoryLink notes that annexation came with the promise of paved streets and services, but the improvements didn't begin until 15 years later.

By 2012, the Broadview-Bitter Lake-Haller Lake neighborhood plan update was still listing missing sidewalks and drainage on the area's arterials. It called for sidewalk improvements at Greenwood's small retail clusters. Four years later, the repaving went ahead without them. The Urbanist's August 2016 piece put SDOT's position at the time plainly:

"SDOT said there are no plans to build sidewalks between NW 112th Street and NW 125th Street or NW 130th Street to NW 136th Street."

This is a busy road. The same article cited 2014 counts of almost 28,000 cars a day on the north end of Greenwood, only 5,000 fewer than Aurora's 33,000. It included a photo of riders at the North 117th Street stop getting through parked cars and overgrown bushes to reach the bus. Route 5 already served that stretch then, as it does now.

How the corridor filled in, one segment at a time

None of the gaps on that 2016 list closed in one project. They closed over about a decade, each on its own schedule:

The Broadview Community Council posted the plan for the stretch north of 137th in May 2017 and reported it finished by June 2020. SDOT finished the 117th-to-125th section in November 2022. The city's 2025 Levy to Move Seattle annual report says the 125th-to-130th blocks were done in 2025. The two stretches under construction now are the ones still left from that 2016 list.

What's under construction this fall

SDOT's project page was updated October 9, 2026. It reports crews on the east side of Greenwood between North 117th and North 112th, working south. The east side between 137th and 133rd started at the same time. Once crews reach the southern end of the east side, they move to the west side and work north to south again.

Here is what that looks like day to day, according to the city:

• Work hours: Weekdays, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Lane reductions: Only between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. One lane stays open in each direction, and all lanes are open at peak commute times and on weekends.
• Driveways: On the east side between 112th and 117th, expect short interruptions while crews lay steel plates for Seattle Public Utilities water service work. SDOT says access in and out of driveways will be kept open.
• Pace: Each section takes about two to three months. SDOT expects the whole project to finish in early to mid 2027.
• What's going in: Storm drains, water service line updates, new curb and gutter, sidewalks, planting strips, ADA-compliant curb ramps, upgraded pedestrian signals, and repaved parking lanes.

SDOT also warns that later work on the 112th-to-117th stretch will close some Metro stops, with notice given in advance. The project's email list is the quickest way to hear about those changes. You can sign up for updates and find the project under "walking & biking."

The northbound stop at 134th is closed

One closure is already in place. Northbound stop #6840 at Greenwood Avenue North and North 134th Street has been closed for construction since late July. King County Metro's service advisories send riders to stop #6820 at North 130th or stop #6850 at North 137th instead. For anyone used to boarding at 134th, the stop at 137th is the closer of the two.

The two agencies list different routes. Metro's advisory names routes 5, 345 and 77. SDOT's project page says routes 5 and 35. Metro's advisory runs through October 23, 2026, and was last updated September 3. SDOT says the stop will stay closed during construction, so expect the advisory to be extended. Check Metro's page before your trip for current routes.

Groundwork for a signal at 134th

The 133rd-to-137th stretch includes one piece that won't show when the concrete is done. SDOT is doing the civil work for a future half signal at North 134th Street. The agency says the signal will make it safer and more accessible to reach transit along Greenwood. In a 2022 letter about a West Seattle location, SDOT described a pedestrian half signal as push-button activated, stopping traffic on the arterial with a red light.

The project page calls the signal future work and gives no installation date. What the current construction delivers is the underground and curb-level work, so the signal can be added later without tearing up new sidewalk. The pairing makes sense on the map. A pedestrian-activated signal was already planned at 137th as part of the stretch finished in 2020. The new one at 134th sits next to the bus stop that is closed now.

Walking it from one Diva to the other

The sequence is easiest to see on foot. Diva Espresso's Broadview café sits at 10555 Greenwood Avenue North, just south of the current construction. Head north and you reach the 112th-to-117th stretch, where east-side crews are working this fall. From 117th to 125th you're on sidewalk finished in November 2022, on the same blocks where The Urbanist photographed riders squeezing past parked cars to reach the 117th stop in 2016.

Past 125th, the sidewalk dates to 2025. It takes you to the Broadview Branch of The Seattle Public Library at 12755 Greenwood Avenue North, open Monday through Saturday. North of 130th comes the second active construction zone, with the closed stop at 134th and the future signal site. Beyond 137th, the sidewalks finished in 2020 carry you to Diva Espresso's Highlands café at 14419 Greenwood Avenue North. SDOT's schedule has the last sections done in early to mid 2027.

Construction like this changes how a stretch of Greenwood feels to live on and to show to buyers, and knowing which blocks were finished when helps when you're looking at homes along the corridor. If you'd like to talk through how the Greenwood work affects a home you own or one you're considering, Brooke Davis is glad to walk the blocks with you. Let's Connect.