Tree replacement in Admiral medians starts tomorrow

This just hit the inbox, from the Seattle Department of Transportation – tree replacement starts tomorrow. Here’s the full text of the SDOT announcement:

This Thursday, December 20, Gary Merlino Construction will be working on SW Admiral Way to assist Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) crews to replace trees in the medians between 39th Avenue SW and SW Olga Street. The work will include the placement of soil and mulch and should be completed by Friday, December 21. Residents should expect some lane closures to accommodate the work. However, at least one lane will remain open for traffic in each direction at all times. SDOT plans to conduct follow-up work in late January and early February to complete the installation of irrigation and groundcover planting.

This median restoration will put the final touches on the SW Admiral Way corridor. The re-planting of trees is proceeding with direction from SDOT Traffic Engineering staff, who have confirmed appropriate tree locations in response to community concerns about traffic safety and visibility. The decision to reduce the number of trees in the restored medians from the original number of 22 to 14 responds to the need to provide for appropriate sight distance in a way that does not compromise the aesthetic character of the corridor or the traffic-calming effect that trees provide.

Given feedback from the broader West Seattle community expressing concern about the potential loss of trees along SW Admiral Way, SDOT will supplement the 14 trees to be installed in the median with an additional eight trees to be planted along the corridor. SDOT is confident that this re-planting work will restore the long-standing character of this important entrance to the Admiral community in a manner that is both consistent with the Admiral Neighborhood Plan and with citywide reforestation goals.

While SDOT has revised the tree layout and increased the number of traffic markings in response to concerns about traffic safety, SDOT will continue to monitor traffic operations in the coming months. Should there be a need to adjust the location of a tree or two to meet traffic safety standards, we will undertake any such work in the Spring.

jmland December 19, 2007 (4:47 pm)

“This median restoration will put the final touches on the SW Admiral Way corridor.”

What about the “sharrows” that still haven’t been installed on the pavement? Right now they just have these barely visible hand-drawn sharrows. Is that all we get?

Anyway, it will be nice to have the trees back!

I Heart Jiggers December 19, 2007 (7:08 pm)

I’d love to have th trees, but the medians are still too short to make for safe zones while turning off of or onto Admiral from the surrounding neighborhoods, especially during high-traffic times.

I keep asking how many people have to die on Admiral Way before we get any real traffic flow revisions, and still no answer. Mr. Ward, how many deaths, how much destruction of property, how many accidents and near-misses need there be?

For now, make it pretty for the speeders.

Thanks, and Merry Crosswalks to You.

CMP December 19, 2007 (8:36 pm)

I agree with Jiggers…planting trees in the median doesn’t sound like the safest thing for that street, but then again, SDOT doesn’t seem to have much common sense. Sure, it’ll be pretty, but I think safety should be a higher priority and that all of the trees should be planted along the corridor, not in the middle of it.

Ron Burgundy December 19, 2007 (9:34 pm)

I heard they’re replanting all of the leftover Christmas trees from all of the West Seattle lot. There’s a deal on them right now.

chas redmond December 20, 2007 (12:12 am)

I don’t have a web link for the data but I do have a map published by SDOT which covers the years 2002 through 2006 and it shows 3 pedestrian collisions south of Spokane Street on Avalon Way up to 35th; one collision on Admiral Way from Spokane Street up to Belvidere; and more than a dozen at the immediate area of Admiral Junction. I would say the safety issue presumed to exist isn’t the case on the stretch of Admiral where these trees will be. The real problem is Admiral and California.

In the period 2002-2006, according to the same SDOT map, there were 2,525 pedestrian-vehicle collisions in the city. The vast majority of them downtown, the U-District, Rainier Valley and upper Aurora. Holman and Greenwood have their fair share, too. Overall, West Seattle, Ballard, Maple Leaf/Wedgwood all seem to be equally “safe.” Magnolia – way safe!!

Jan December 21, 2007 (12:05 am)

Chas….Magnolia…way safe…way quiet, too…hehe. Daughter moving back to the westside from Magnolia on Saturday, so that just struck me as funny. I for one am glad that there will be plantings on the medians on Admiral Way. On a rainy dark night, since they configured the lines to not include the intersections, it’s sometimes difficult to even see the median curbs coming around some of those curves. The orange barrels they put there because of that are sooooo soooo attractive…hope they don’t take root, too :) Thanks for the statistics.

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