By Tracy Record and Patrick Sand
West Seattle Blog co-publishers
When we saw the agenda for last night’s Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting, featuring an SDOT presentation about “Delridge rechannelization,” we expected more information about this – rechannelization planned in connection with Metro Route 120 changes on the north end of Delridge.
Nope.
This presentation was about a new plan for mid-to-south Delridge rechannelization – and as you can see if you watch our video from last night’s meeting, its details surprised the District Council members too:
The South Delridge rechannelization plan, the SDOT reps said, is bundled with the forthcoming resurfacing/repaving of the same stretch, which was most recently detailed during Mayor McGinn‘s Town Hall in The Junction on May 3rd (as mentioned in our report on that meeting).
Read on for details of what the city unveiled last night, including the graphics of what the configurations are supposed to look like for each affected stretch, and news of one block where parking will undergo a dramatic change:
The city says this work is to be done after the paving/resurfacing project, which could start as soon as January, and is funded by money from the Bridging the Gap levy (reps didn’t know exactly how much – we have requested more information from SDOT along with digital versions of the graphics you’ll see in this story).
SDOT says the plan would affect parking in two ways: On the southernmost block of Delridge, in the Triangle business district, the angled parking would be changed from head-in to back-in. And for one block between Holden and Kenyon, there will be street parking added on the east side. Holden is also the one place where SDOT says it can add a left-turn pocket – the photo below shows the current configuration at top left, the Holden intersection plan at top right:
They said that they will not be able to add a left-turn pocket on Delridge at Thistle or Trenton, two other places where it had been requested.
Meantime, the plan includes bike lanes both ways from SW Myrtle to SW Kenyon:
And from SW Kenyon south to the city limits (Roxbury), the change is subtle – sharrows will be added in the travel lanes:
After the presentation – as, again, you can see if you watch/listen to our video – much discussion ensued. One concern had to do with a big-picture issue: How does this play into the District Council’s long-voiced aspirations toward a “boulevard” concept for Delridge? The prospect of major repaving/resurfacing on Delridge had inspired council members to invite City Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen and Sally Bagshaw to a meeting last November (WSB coverage here) to pitch the concept. At that meeting, as noted during this one, one SDOT official had even suggested bike lanes on Delridge wouldn’t be needed if the “neighborhood greenway” concept that’s also been proposed for parallel streets came to pass.
Then, some discussion had to do with logistics for the project. During repaving/resurfacing, the SDOT reps said, southbound traffic would be detoured; they are still working on the exact plan, but concerns were voiced about heavier traffic volumes on streets that aren’t used to it, including some in the South Delridge area that don’t have sidewalks. There will always be one northbound lane open during the work, it was promised. But there might be full-weekend closures to get major intersections done in one take.
Further discussions/presentations are expected, possibly including next month’s joint meeting of the Delridge and Southwest District Councils. And, as mentioned earlier, we’re pursuing more details from SDOT, as well as clearer graphics, and information on the feedback process.
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