Yakima council reviews Sixth Avenue rebuild options as trolley supporters press to preserve tracks

Yakima City Council members on May 13 heard a months‑long public outreach summary and draft designs for the Sixth Avenue rebuild, a Transportation Benefit District (TBD) project that stretches from Walnut Street to River Road and that could include restoring trolley track through the corridor.

The project matters because Sixth Avenue combines commercial, residential and industrial uses, carries truck traffic, hosts the William O. Douglas Trail and runs along the city‑owned Yakima Valley Trolley; rebuilding the street will require balancing competing demands while the city confronts a TBD funding shortfall.

Acting city engineer Bill Preston said the presentation was “a transportation project, not a presentation on the trolleys,” but acknowledged the trolley’s central role in public interest and in several design options. Preston told the council the corridor must be fully rebuilt because pavement and subgrade failures make mere resurfacing insufficient.

HLA and HBB, the city’s consultants, presented three high‑level concepts and preliminary cost estimates: a full rebuild with the trolley included (rough order $12.8 million, not including catenary/pole electrification estimated separately at about $2.1 million); a “couplet” concept that uses Fifth and Sixth Avenues together and allows reclassification of Sixth…