Bellingham’s newest waterfront jewel – the Taylor Avenue Dock and Boardwalk – instantly became a must-see Bellingham attraction when it opened to the public in late August. Rain or shine, day or night, Bellinghamsters and visitors are enjoying this wonderful new public amenity.
“The
Taylor Avenue Dock represents an important part of Bellingham’s maritime and
industrial history. The “new” Taylor Avenue Dock and Boardwalk preserves and
honors that heritage, and provides a waterfront jewel for everyone to
enjoy,” Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson said to a ribbon-cutting-ceremony
crowd of several hundred on September 24.
The project included restoring and improving Bellingham’s historic Taylor Avenue Dock and building a boardwalk over the water from the dock to Boulevard Park. It is located at the terminus of Taylor Avenue near the intersection of Tenth Street and Taylor Avenue.
The walkway completes a more than quarter mile “missing link” from downtown to Fairhaven on Bellingham’s popular South Bay Trail. It also provides a safe way to cross the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks.
The project included extensive environmental protection and habitat conservation efforts and removing more than 700 tons of demolition and submerged debris. Next steps include developing the park at the Taylor Avenue entrance and adding a floating dinghy dock. These improvements are expected to be underway during 2005.
The Taylor Avenue Dock was built in the late 1800s and was for years been used for a variety of commercial ventures, including by a canning factory, as an offloading facility for bulk fuel operations, and as a cargo dock.
Some
twenty years of dreaming and planning included more than six years of
designing the improvements and working to obtain proper shoreline and sea
floor construction permits.
Restoring the historic dock and constructing a boardwalk over the water to Boulevard Park was one of the centerpieces of the Beyond Greenway Levy, approved by Bellingham voters in 1997 to support the purchase and development of parks and trails.
The Taylor Avenue Dock and Boardwalk received significant state and federal funding, including a $800,000 grant from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program/Office of the Interagency Committee for the first phase. Financial support from the federal government for the next phase includes two grants from the Federal Highway Administration.
