By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Now that the Fauntleroy Boulevard project is funded and approaching construction, it’s getting even-closer public scrutiny, and that brought a briefing and Q&A at last night’s meeting of the West Seattle Transportation Coalition, which has talked about it many times before.

Close to 30 people were there, including an SDOT delegation led by Fauntleroy Boulevard project manager Norene Pen and project communication lead Rachel McCaffrey, who launched the briefing with background:

The project area is .4 miles long, and the concept dates back to 1999 discussions. Part of the project involves the Bicycle Master Plan‘s designation in 2014 of Fauntleroy Way for a protected bike lane. Outreach to adjacent property owners, and discussions, started in 2014-2015. Early ’15 is when the project was “put on hold” for lack of funding; then it was added to the Move Seattle levy, approved by voters in November 2015. She said they’re aware that the partial design that’s just been “re-initiated” is two years old and they are assessing current conditions to be sure it still works, as they then finalize design and move toward starting construction “late 2017 or early 2018.”

The project’s 3 main goals: Read More

(WSB photo from March 2016, looking east from west of 30th SW; future-sidewalk zone is at right, eastward from 76 station)

In our report on last week’s Roxhill Elementary PTSA tour of EC Hughes Elementary, we mentioned that principal Tarra Patrick told the group that the school would be affected by upcoming work to install sidewalks on the other side of Roxbury. And we promised details. We’ve reported these plans before, but not a specific timeline or other details; thanks to Brent Champaco of King County Road Services, here’s what we’ve found out:

The project is going out to bid next month and work is expected to start in May. Along with building the new sidewalks along the south side of SW Roxbury between 28th SW and 30th SW, “approximately 10 concrete roadway panels” will be replaced adjacent to the sidewalks, according to Champaco, and since that will require shifting traffic on Roxbury, the Roxhill school-bus zone on the north side of the street will have to be moved. The county started talking with Roxhill and the school district last year, discussing two options; the district, Champaco says, prefers to have the bus zone relocated to 30th SW in front of the school. So that will mean signage changes to restrict parent pickup/dropoff in that area, as well as pedestrian signage changes.

The project is expected to take up to two months, but Champaco says traffic won’t be shifted on Roxbury for the entire duration: “Once the concrete panel work is completed, traffic can use existing lanes. The contractor will be permitted to close a lane and shift traffic between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Between 6:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and between 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., all lanes must be open.” There’s enough width to keep 2-way traffic moving, he says.

Since the sidewalk and road-panel work is adjacent to businesses, we asked how they’ll be affected/accessible:

During the design phase, King County Road Services and Property Services staff worked closely with the owner of the 76 gas station; the landowners of the parcels housing the Roxbury Auto Parts store, Mocha Mojo coffee stand, and Eric’s Import & Domestic Auto Services; and the owner Roxbury Auto Parts store to resolve parking impacts and secure easements and right-of-way.

Parking on the auto parts store property, including the “coffee shack” will be modified to provide a one-way loop for the “coffee shack” and a one-way loop for the auto parts store. The parking lot revisions were reviewed and approved by King County’s Department of Permitting and Environmental Services. The number of parking spaces following the project completion will equal or exceed existing parking spaces.

The 76 gas station will have one 30-foot wide driveway and one 35-foot wide driveways to SW Roxbury Street (thereby consolidating access to two points of ingress/egress). The auto parts store will have a 25-foot wide driveway entering the loop in front of the store and a 28-foot wide exit driveway. A 32-foot wide driveway will provide entrance/exit to the “coffee stand” and parking at the back of the auto parts store. Finally, a 30-foot wide driveway will provide access to the auto repair shop.

Access to each of these businesses will be provided continuously throughout construction. No other businesses (such as the casino, Shell gas station or Safeway) are expected to be impacted by the work.

This is all part of the Roxbury Corridor Project; our most recent update was almost a year ago. While researching this, we also checked in with SDOT’s Jim Curtin, who added, “SDOT is also surveying Roxbury for our upcoming paving project. The project is still a few years out but we are looking for ways to expedite the project.”