West Seattle, Washington
28 Thursday
First, just in from Peg Nielsen at SDOT:
Tomorrow, Thursday, June 10, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., SDOT will be conducting a maintenance inspection on the SW Spokane Street Bridge in the eastbound pedestrian and bike lane. Pedestrians and bicyclists will be flagged around the equipment involved in the work activities. Bicyclists will be asked to dismount through the work zone.
(Photo from Genesee work zone, added Wednesday evening)
Second – Heidi on Genesee Hill e-mailed to ask about what appeared to be an unannounced paving project in the works. We checked with SDOT, whose Marybeth Turner replied:
DOT crews are paving SW Genesee from 47th to 49th. It wasn’t on the lists because it was not certain that there would be funds for it this year. When it became apparent that there would be sufficient funds, they started the job. The plan is to pave on Friday or Monday. One lane will remain open in each direction.
(Google Map removed because of technical problems for some site visitors)
Three and a half years have passed since it was the site of a much-publicized deadly crash … but area residents say the Admiral Way crosswalk at 47th is still a place where you take your life into your hands just to cross the street. So the Admiral Neighborhood Association is leading a new push to get the city to install a pedestrian-activated stoplight. The crosswalk goes between two busy businesses – Life Care Center on the north side, Alki Mail and Dispatch on the south side – with residential neighborhoods behind each. Since the fall 2006 death of Tatsuo Nakata, “traffic-calming” measures have gone in nearby – in 2007, the intersection was marked by a “Crosswalk” sign with flashing lights overhead and narrowed by curb bulbs, while more recently, a radar speed sign was placed on the eastbound (uphill) side of Admiral at Garlough. The ANA says that’s not enough. Karl de Jong brought up the issue at last month’s meeting, and since then, a group also including ANA’s president Katy Walum and Jim Del Ciello has explored the concept, including talking with SDOT. Del Ciello said he’d also spoken with an Alki Community Council rep who suggested they’d be willing to partner on the safety advocacy too. Tonight Walum plans to be at the 34th District Democrats‘ meeting to make the case for a pedestrian-activated light directly to Mayor Mike McGinn.
Meantime, when this was discussed at last night’s ANA meeting, talk also turned to the study on eastern Admiral Way – where SDOT is looking at possible rechannelization, as first reported here May 21st. Walum says SDOT’s study will include measurements of bicycle traffic as well as cars, and then, she says they’re promising a “well-advertised open house” in “early fall” to unveil what the study revealed. She also said SDOT has assigned project manager Virginia Coffman to that Admiral Way study.
It’s a simple way to get healthier, and to get around … just walk. But sometimes people need a little encouragement. Think you’re the person to cheer them on? Feet First invites you to free “Neighborhood Walking Ambassador” training at the Alki Bathhouse this Saturday (June 12), 10 am-noon. Here’s more about the program (on Feet First’s recently upgraded website!). If you’re interested, RSVP to yoyo@feetfirst.info or 206-652-2310.
Metro‘s out with a reminder this morning that the next of its three-times-yearly “service revisions” is coming up June 12. Nothing major for West Seattle, but the announcement includes a reminder of the three routes that will be affected by the South Park Bridge‘s permanent closure on June 30th, as well as a reminder about the routes that are currently affected by the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project, two weeks after shutdown of the westbound 1st Avenue South ramp to the West Seattle Bridge. Read on for the highlights:Read More
“What needs to change in your neighborhood in order to make walking, biking, and riding transit easy?” WSB’ers have a LOT of answers to that one – so we want to be sure you’d heard about your next chance to speak out. The city’s “Walk, Bike, Ride” initiative has just started a series of community gatherings – kicking off with the Health/Equity/Transportation Forum you can watch in the window above – and one meeting is coming up in West Seattle – 6 pm June 14th at Delridge Community Center. The meeting invite promises that you’ll “receive information on what types of projects are possible, and fill out a ‘ballot’ that will help the city prioritize these types of transportation projects.”
That banner has just gone up in the window at 4417 Fauntleroy Way (map), the former OK Corral barbecue joint (which quietly went from take-out, to catering-only, to closed over the past few months): Jones Barbeque, coming soon. You may know them from SODO and/or Columbia City. We’ve got messages out to company ownership/management to find out about the West Seattle plan, so stand by for more.
We spotted the sign while heading over to take a photo of what WSB Forums member Nuni pointed out — the new left-turn signals at 35th/Avalon have just been switched on, after more than a week under wraps:
The signals are just on the west/east lights (Avalon to 35th), not the north/south ones. And yes, this is the same intersection that has one of West Seattle’s two red-light-camera systems (along with 35th/Thistle).
What looks like a trash basket attached to a signpole on the east side of California at Dawson (map) is supposed to be a basket of safety flags to be used by pedestrians – at a crossing where someone was hit and killed a year and a half ago. Efram and Kim, who live nearby, e-mailed WSB to say they’ve reported to SDOT multiple times that the flags need to be replenished, but they haven’t been – and the empty basket repeatedly fills with trash. This was one of three baskets of flags placed by SDOT almost two years ago. Right after photographing the Dawson basket Tuesday afternoon, we checked on the other two:
Further north on California, the basket at Dakota (photo above; here’s a map) still had flags, as did the third of the placements, at Avalon/Yancy (photo below; here’s a map):
That intersection, by the way, has a whole separate set of safety concerns, and we’ve been working on a story about that. Back to Dawson/California – Kim says she even spoke to someone with the Walk and Bike Program, but, “More than a month later, nothing. I think the pail was even emptied of its garbage just after I called the Walk and Bike Program! I hoped that flags would soon appear but they never did and the garbage just piled back up.” We suggested to Efram and Kim that they try 684-ROAD, the general SDOT hotline, again; if that doesn’t result in replenishment, we will check with SDOT to see if perhaps there’s been a change in the program. Kim says, “It’s pretty scary crossing the street at the crosswak at California SW and SW Dawson. I thought pedestrians had the right of way at crosswalks but you wouldn’t know that at all at ours.”
(County rendering of what the South Park end of the SP Bridge will look like, right after 6/30 shutdown)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“This is challenging.”
That declaration repeated a few times Tuesday night by King County Transportation Director Harold Taniguchi summed up not only the logistics of closing the South Park Bridge forever and getting people around after the June 30th closure, but also the logistics of trying to round up money to replace it.
He spoke at the Machinists’ Union Hall in South Park, during the final public meeting on the official closure plan, now considered final – what’s happening before, during and after the closure of the deteriorating bridge, scheduled for 7 pm June 30th.
For the first time in the most recent series of public meetings about the impending bridge closure, elected officials appeared and spoke – first King County Executive Dow Constantine, who represented this area as a county councilmember before moving up to the top job last year, second State Sen. Joe McDermott, who doesn’t represent South Park in the Legislature, but is seeking to represent the area as its next county councilmember. Here’s our video of Constantine’s entire 8-minute speech:
And Sen. McDermott, whose remarks were much shorter, but drew a pointed challenge fairly quickly:
Aside from Constantine’s extensive recap of how we got to this point – past funding attempts, the defeat of the bridge-money-containing Roads and Transit ballot measure, etc. – their appearances, and much of the first two-thirds of the meeting, looked to the future: Will there really be money at some point for a new South Park Bridge (which is at least 3 years away, even if money were found today, those on hand were warned repeatedly)?Read More
Before we start adding photos and updates, we start with the reminder: 9 am-5 pm, it’s the third annual city-organized “car-free day” on Alki, starting with the West Seattle 5K walk/run (co-sponsored by WSB; final signups are under way now; the race itself starts at 9:20). The closure/detour map is here. Don’t let a little drizzle discourage you. 8:53 AM UPDATE: At the beach now – and so are sunbreaks! Also happening, as West Seattle 5K emcee Marty Riemer (see photo just added below) just announced, people who ignored the “no parking” signs are about to get towed (see photo just added above).
Race time has just been revised to 9:25 – all the better, since more sun is coming out with each moment that goes by.
11:04 AM: See our race coverage in this separate story. Meantime, the Summer Streets setup is complete – here’s the skateboard ramp in place across from (and sponsored by) Coastal, and some other exhibitor/participants including Mountain to Sound Outfitters:
We’ll launch a separate Summer Streets story for the afternoon.
In the comment section following our original coverage of Thursday’s bicycle-car collision on Admiral Way by The Bridge, Stu Hennessey from Alki Bike and Board wrote that this week’s Sustainable West Seattle Community Forum on bicycling had been told a “road diet” is in the works for that stretch of Admiral – a “rechannelization” as happened last year along Fauntleroy Way between Morgan Junction and The Triangle. We followed up with SDOT, whose communications director Rick Sheridan confirms that a study is under way:
SDOT is currently reviewing SW Admiral Way between SW Olga St and SW Spokane St for a possible reconfiguration of its lanes. Our primary goal is to find a way to make the roadway safer for all users, especially with the high rates of speed currently seen on Admiral. We are seeking to determine whether a rechannelization would enhance safety and also maintain current traffic volumes. Changes to the lane configuration might also provide SDOT the opportunity to better support pedestrians, bicycles and transit along this street.
Our comprehensive study of the roadway should be completed this summer. We will share additional information about this effort with roadway users, area residents and community groups once the study is complete.
If the cross-street names aren’t familiar, that’s the entire stretch that was closed during yesterday’s investigation – the Admiral Way “hill” from The Bridge to just before the hilltop curve.
A WSB’er e-mailed to ask if we’d heard anything about the fate of the bus stops lost during the 2 years of 53rd Avenue Pump Station expansion on Alki. We checked with King County Department of Transportation‘s Linda Thielke, who replied:
The SDOT will reinstall the bus stops on Alki Avenue Southwest at 53rd Avenue Southwest for Metro. This work is estimated to be completed at the end of June when SDOT crews will be available to restore the stops. In the interim, temporary bus stops will be placed at Alki Avenue SW & 53rd Avenue SW by Metro as soon as possible and before the end of the month of May.
In conjunction with the permanent reinstallation of the stops at 53rd, SDOT has asked Metro to permanently close the (Alki) bus stops at 55th Avenue Southwest and (at) Bonair Drive Southwest. This is to conform with Metro & SDOT’s bus stop spacing standards of one-quarter mile between bus stops. Rider Alerts will be posted at 55th & Bonair prior to the closure.
As of 7:30 am, 209 bicyclists had checked in at Cascade Bicycle Club‘s official Bike-To-Work Day commute station by the west end of the “low bridge” – close to last year’s pace, we’re told. Matt from sponsoring BECU demonstrated the clicker being used to check riders in:
The station is up and running till 9 am, offering riders refreshments and information. It’s one of many around the city; then 4-7 pm, Cascade is presenting a citywide Bike-To-Work Day afterparty in Ballard – part of Seattle Summer Streets, which returns to West Seattle on Sunday with the main Alki roadway closed from SW Maryland to 63rd SW, 9 am-5 pm (the West Seattle 5K Run/Walk [co-sponsored by WSB] kicks off the day). P.S. There’s also a BTW Day rally downtown this morning – Cascade has photo links on its Twitter feed.
From this afternoon’s South Portal Working Group meeting for the Alaskan Way Viaduct project: This group has often received briefings on the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project, and that’s part of what kicked off today’s session, with a focus on effects of the permanent closure of the 1st Avenue South onramp to the westbound (high) West Seattle Bridge. SDOT‘s Bob Powers pronounced Monday and Tuesday as “pretty good” traffic-wise – but noted the congestion was worse on day 2. He says they’ve got observers out watching the traffic flow (and non-flow, “We’re taking a look at that, trying to fine-tune some of the signal timings down there to make it operate as best we can,” and keeping a log of how it unfolds. He mentioned the communication system, using dynamic-messaging signs and Twitter to get drivers advance word, if the “low bridge” has to open for vessels – checking the SDOT Twitter feed, it appears there was one bridge opening Monday morning and one Tuesday morning, but none today, and none during afternoon/evening rush hour since the ramp closed on Monday. “We have a very well-coordinated notification if a vessel’s coming through,” Powers said. Also from SDOT, Trevor Partap chimed in that “We’re calling in more police officers to help (direct traffic through the detour) … Today they (were) at Spokane and East Marginal, which was a little more congested yesterday. We’re continually monitoring, and once things settle down, we’ll look into” signal re-timing, etc. He also explained why lower Spokane Street, eastbound, did NOT open Monday as SDOT had announced it would during a media tour on Friday – and how long it’ll be till it can open – That plus a few other toplines from the meeting, after the jump:Read More
New city-operated traffic cameras (NOT “red-light” cameras, just traffic-monitoring live cams) are finally online in West Seattle. Three of the latest images are “live” above – 42nd/Alaska in The Junction, Fauntleroy/Cloverdale near the ferry terminal, and 11th/Spokane near the “low bridge.” A westbound “high bridge” image is showing now too:
And there’s one at California/Alaska (see it here). The newest ones are not on the “traffic cameras” list on the city website, but they are on the Travelers’ Information Map. And we’ll add these to the WSB Traffic page tonight. (Hat tip to our friends at Capitol Hill Seattle and My Ballard, who published updates after discovering “their” new cams are online, inspiring us to check on “ours.”)
During the very first meeting of the special West Seattle Triangle Advisory Group (WSB coverage here), it was clear that parking was one of the hottest issues regarding the area’s future. City planner Susan McLain promised a special meeting would be devoted to that topic – and today she’s sent the agenda for that SDOT-hosted meeting, coming up this Thursday:
I. Introductions (10 min) Casey Hildreth, SDOT
II. Review of 2009 West Seattle Junction parking project (20 min) Danté Taylor, SDOT
III. Discussion of key issues (30 min) All
a. Employee parking
b. Residential (RPZ) parking
c. Hide-and-ride, park-and-ride
d. BRT parking impacts
IV. Next steps (5 min) Casey
V. Q & A (25 min) All
(BRT refers to RapidRide – “Bus Rapid Transit.”) The meeting’s at 6 pm Thursday, Senior Center of West Seattle, and everybody’s welcome. Meantime, the city has posted documents and graphics from past Triangle Advisory Group meetings here.
Thanks to those who e-mailed about parking restrictions at and around Seacrest tomorrow afternoon-evening – the signs are up throughout the parking lot and along the north side of Harbor for about a block on either side of Seacrest. All of those areas are marked “no parking” for 3-10 pm tomorrow (Saturday). One tipster said it’s for a film crew, though we haven’t confirmed that. (2:55 pm update, SDOT confirms it) Good news, though, that time frame will NOT affect a big event at Seacrest tomorrow morning:
The fish have just arrived for the West Seattle Sportsmen’s Club Hi-Yu Kids’ Fishing Derby. It’s free to the first 150 kids, who will be provided bamboo fishing poles to borrow, and goodie bags to keep:
That’s club recording secretary (and 22-year member) Roz Mascio, part of the crew putting together the goodie bags at the pier right now. Club members will also be keeping round-the-clock watch on the “fish pond” till the derby’s over – it’s scheduled for 8 am to 11 am tomorrow.
(Photo courtesy King County Department of Transportation)
Midway between two major community meetings on the South Park Bridge closure plan, a smaller “inter-agency” group is just wrapping up a meeting this morning. Some new information has emerged, inspired, those on hand say, by feedback they’ve received at previous meetings as well as via e-mail and other channels. That information includes changes to planned bus reroutes, as well as one major new element for the road that will become a dead end of sorts when the bridge closes at 7 pm June 30 – read on:Read More
It was one of the hottest topics on last night’s Southwest District Council meeting – the upcoming closure of the 1st Avenue South ramp to the westbound West Seattle Bridge, as part of the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project. The closure’s now 11 days away – Monday, May 17th – and project manager Stuart Goldsmith got some tough questions last night at the SWDC meeting after taking some tough questions: What about West Seattle traffic after the closure? he was asked, as SWDC co-chair Erica Karlovits of the Junction Neighborhood Organization pointed out that trouble on The Bridge can back up traffic all the way into The Junction, or well into North Delridge. Goldsmith said SDOT would keep an eye on that. Meantime, the department has just issued another official reminder tonight of the impending ramp closure (which will mean almost a year and a half with no access to the westbound bridge between 99 and I-5), along with the official detour map (above) – read on for the full text:Read More
(Photo courtesy King County Department of Transportation)
As reported in previous coverage of the King County plan to close the South Park Bridge on June 30th, they’ve been awaiting one last consultant analysis to confirm their assessment that the bridge is too unsafe to keep open. This afternoon, that report is complete, and the county says it indeed underscores their decision. According to a news release from the county (read it here), the bridge “is in such poor condition it can no longer be safely used by the public.” The county also has posted the full report – you can see it here. Still no funding to replace the bridge, but logistical planning for its closure continues, with two meetings ahead May 11 and 25, as noted in our coverage of last week’s meeting about the “draft closure plan.”
(Photo by Briana Watts)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“This really, really, really sucks.”
South Park resident Lora Suggs summed up in five words the prevailing mood at tonight’s South Park Bridge draft-closure-plan meeting.
The meeting was supposed to be about explaining the newly released draft plan for helping people get around and helping businesses stay afloat once the deteriorating bridge closes June 30.
But when public-comment time kicked in, it was more like venting – both at the mike and from the audience, demonstrating the community’s indignation that the situation has even come to this.
One woman said she had bought her home in Boulevard Park in 1978, at which time, “I was told the South Park Bridge needed to be retrofitted and replaced. My (child) was 5. He’s 37 now. Why are we sitting here today and why wasn’t this taken care of sooner?”
King County Department of Transportation Director Harold Taniguchi had no easy answer. Besieged repeatedly by audience calls of “how did this happen? why did this happen,” he finally had to say, “We are at where we are at. If we had 32 years to put a funding plan together – we didn’t do it.”
Some community culpability was acknowledged in the middle of a fiery 5-minute speech by Christina Gallegos. Listen to it – as she addresses almost every topic that came up tonight, with clarity as well as fury.
Taniguchi’s response, plus highlights of the draft closure plan – including West Seattle effects – and the search for money for a new bridge, after the jump:Read More
Two paving updates this morning: First, that’s a photo from last fall, when the city wrapped up reconstruction/repaving on 16th SW between Findlay and Brandon. SDOT has just sent out a reminder that it’s also going to rebuild the block between Brandon and Dawson this year, but not till summer – between mid-July and mid-September – so that fewer South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) attendees will be inconvenienced. The SDOT alert today says “A northbound detour similar to what was implemented in 2009 will be required again for work this year.” More info’s online.
Meantime, a welcome sight for Alki drivers (not to mention the people who live in the affected area): Mike Heavey sent the photo at right last night, from the Alki Avenue stretch by the 53rd Avenue Pump Station project. Restoration of the road is the final phase of work; we’d noted earlier this week that the blacktop was being put in place, and as Mike’s photo shows, it’s almost all done. That puts the project length at 26 months; as you can see in that link, it was estimated at 20 months when work started in February 2008. The project tripled its size (all underground)
The latest on the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project and the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project – both of which will affect West Seattle drivers in a major way, as we’ve reported here for the past few years – comprises two of our three toplines from tonight’s Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting at Youngstown Arts Center. Read on for the highlights:Read More
Reminder that as of today, continuing for the next month or so, you can’t park alongside the Junction Plaza Park site at the northwest corner of SW Alaska/42nd SW – SDOT is starting work on the sidewalk-repair project (as previewed here 2 weeks ago), so that stretch of sidewalk will be closed too. The city says work hours will be 8 am-3 pm. Park construction is under way too; that and the sidewalk are all supposed to be done by the end of next month.
| 3 COMMENTS