ROAD WORK ALERT: Paving ahead for parts of Alki SW (with semi-mystery cross-streets) and Beach Drive SW

| Transportation | West Seattle news

Announced at day’s end by SDOT:

Seattle Department of Transportation crews will intermittently close lanes to restore pavement in two areas of West Seattle next week if the weather is favorable. Drivers should plan for congestion and consider alternate routes.

Crews will close one lane at a time on Alki Avenue Southwest between Southwest Arkansas and Southwest Hampshire streets, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, from Tuesday, Aug. 4 until Thursday, Aug. 6.

Crews will also close one lane at a time on Beach Drive Southwest between Southwest Spokane Street and 61st Avenue Southwest, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, from Thursday, Aug. 6 until Friday, Aug. 7. Bus stops in this area will be temporarily relocated outside of the project site.

Traffic flaggers will direct street traffic at both locations. Pedestrians will not be affected by these closures.

These projects are part of the 2015 Arterial Major Maintenance program, which aims to maintain busy streets with strategic small-scale pavement repairs.

ABOUT THOSE ‘CROSS-STREETS’: If the Alki cross-streets don’t sound familiar – you’re not alone. As reported here following a similar notice last year (with much help from commenters), in the Alki area, SDOT uses names of cross-streets that were platted but never built. So unless the telltale “No Parking” signs are up already (we’ll check), our best guess is the 1200-1500 block vicinity (you’ll see Arkansas and Hampshire on this very old map).

Pibal July 31, 2015 (9:46 pm)

A thought occurred to me last year and I held my tongue. But given that the story is repeating itself a year later, it needs to be said:

SDOT: When you communicate in a language no one else understands, you are not communicating effectively. Your message doesn’t get through and you fail to establish credibility with your constituency – or lose what credibility you may have had.

The solution: Use the street names the rest of us live with on a daily basis. Period. It’s not that hard…

WSB July 31, 2015 (9:50 pm)

Pibal – Due to some ongoing mail-access problems today, I didn’t see this until after SDOT’s communications team was done for the day, so I couldn’t bring that up to them, but I plan to on Monday. Just two hours before this was sent, we were at SDOT headquarters downtown covering the traffic-incident-management report release, and part of it (I’m writing the full report now) includes more than a few recommendations related to communicating … TR

Daldart August 1, 2015 (9:31 am)

Agree with Pibal. i’m curious if anyone out there knows of any other public agency in America that uses imaginary streets when describing projects.

valvashon August 1, 2015 (10:08 am)

How much of what is on this map/platt was actually built? More importantly, who/how/when did Admiral Way get put in? It seems as if West Seattle was already laid out, then Admiral Way got laid in over top of what was there.
My lot includes part of vacated Sawyer Street- is there actually a torn up street under my house/yard?